The Bulgarian government publicly implicated Hezbollah in the July 2012 bus bombing in the city of Burgas.
Terrorism sponsored by the government of Iran has reached levels not seen since the 1990’s.
The U.S. State Department released its annual worldwide report on terrorism on May 30th. In it, the State Department says terrorism sponsored by the government of Iran has reached levels not seen since the 1990’s.
“Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, [over the past year] Iran increased its terrorist-related activity, including attacks or attempted attacks in India, Thailand, Georgia and Kenya,” said the State Department. “Iran provided financial, material, and logistical support for terrorist and militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia.
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Iran's Increasing Support For Terrorism
The report noted that Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force, “the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad,” to implement its foreign policy goals and stir up instability in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.
The United States will continue to work with its partners around the world to highlight and thwart Iran’s destructive efforts.
A case in point was the 2011 Qod’s force-directed plot to murder the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. The report notes that an Iranian-born U.S. dual-national Mansour Arbabsiar was arrested by authorities in September 2011, and in October 2012 pled guilty in court to participating in the assassination scheme on behalf of Iran’s Qods force.
A Qods Force officer who remains at large was also indicted. On May 30, 2013, Mr. Arbabsiar was sentenced in a federal court in New York City to 25 years in prison.
In addition to the Saudi Ambassador murder plot, the State Department report says Iran’s Qods force “is suspected of directing planned terrorist attacks in Georgia, India, Thailand and Kenya.”
The Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, whose chief supporter is the Iranian regime, has also increased its destructive activity worldwide. The Bulgarian government publicly implicated Hezbollah in the July 2012 bus bombing in the city of Burgas where one Bulgarian citizen and five Israelis were killed and 32 other individuals were wounded. In March 2013, a Cyprus court found a Hezbollah operative guilty of charges stemming from his 2012 surveillance activity targeting Israeli tourists.
The State Department also noted that Hezbollah and Iran are providing a broad range of critical support to the Assad regime as it continues its brutal crackdown against the Syrian people.
In recent testimony before Congress, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman called Iran “the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, which it uses as a strategic tool of its foreign policy.”
The United States will continue to work with its partners around the world to highlight and thwart Iran’s destructive efforts.
