Iran remains most active state sponsor of terror: US

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran, which continues to plan and finance terrorist attacks in the Middle East and beyond, remains the “most active state sponsor of terrorism” in the world, the US government charged Thursday.
Iran was lumped with Syria, Sudan and Cuba as terrorism sponsors in the State Department report for 2008, the same countries that appeared in previous annual reports.
North Korea was dropped from the blacklist in October 2008 after it struck a verbal deal with the United States aimed at verifying its nuclear disarmament, even though a formal agreement was never sealed.
The latest report said “Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism,” while also calling it the “most significant” sponsor.
“Iran’s involvement in the planning and financial support of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, Europe, and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy,” it said.
It singled out the Qods Force, an elite branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as the Islamic republic’s main means to cultivate and support terrorists overseas.
The Qods Force gave “weapons, training and funding” to Hamas and other Palestinian anti-Israeli groups, Hezbollah as well as Iraq-based fighters and Taliban in Afghanistan, the report said.
It also said the Qods Force trained the Taliban “on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons.”
Iran broke its own pledges to help stabilise Iraq by giving “weapons, training, funding, and guidance” to Iraqi fighters groups that attack US-led coalition and Iraqi forces as well as Iraqi civilians, the US said.