By TPS • 4 November, 2019
The Islamic Republic of Iran was again named the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism” in the US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism for 2018, a dubious title it has held for several consecutive years.
The report, released over the weekend, notes that Iran has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that “serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe.”
These groups include Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. The three are bent on Israel’s destruction, and as Tehran’s proxies, act on its eliminationist intentions toward Israel.
Iran has also engaged in its own terrorist plotting around the world, particularly in Europe, the report said.
In January, German authorities investigated 10 suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qods Force operatives. The Qods Force is entrusted with Iran’s terrorist and subversive activities around the world.
In the summer, authorities in Belgium, France, and Germany thwarted an Iranian plot to bomb a political rally near Paris, France. Israel provided them with the necessary intelligence.
In October, an Iranian operative was arrested for planning an assassination in Denmark, and in December, Albania expelled two Iranian officials for plotting terrorist attacks.
Tehran also continued to allow an Al-Qaeda facilitation network to operate in Iran, which sends terrorists and money to conflict zones in Afghanistan and Syria, and it has extended sanctuary to AQ members residing in the country, the State Department charged.
The US, in turn, has applied maximum pressure on Iran-backed terrorism, significantly expanding sanctions on Iranian state actors and proxies and building stronger international political support to counter those threats.
“The Iranian regime is destabilizing the region in attempt to entrench itself well beyond its borders, posing a threat to Israel & the region as a whole,” Yuval Rotem, Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated Monday.
Speaking at the Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem on Sunday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the most important thing is to make sure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons and that its march towards empire and conquest is stopped.”
President Donald Trump’s policy of putting maximum economic pressure on Iran is the right one, he opined and said he was glad to see that it has been increased recently.
“I know that it’s having a telling effect on Iran’s ability to fund its aggression. We can see that. And equally, we are committed to preventing Iran from entrenching itself militarily in our borders, especially in Syria. And we take the necessary action to prevent that,” he stated.
“I think that’s a necessity, because if Iran has its way, then the Middle East will collapse. And I would say categorically: If Israel wasn’t here in the heart of the Middle East, then Iran would have won. And by way, would have already had nuclear power.