US terrorism report condemns Iran, praises S. Arabia
WASHINGTON, April 29: The United States on Thursday again condemned Iran as the world's leading "state sponsor of terrorism" but praised Saudi Arabia, which it said had made significant strides in combatting extremist violence.
As in previous years, the State Department identified Iran as the chief exporter of terrorism in its annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, accusing the Islamic republic of fomenting terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East, particularly against Israel.
"Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2003," the report said, maintaining that Tehran's intelligence and security services were responsible for supporting extremist groups and that the country had failed to meet pledges to act against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Iran's "Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security were involved in the planning of and support for terrorist acts and continued to exhort a variety of groups that use terrorism to pursue their goals," it said.
The most egregious of these actions were Iran's continued funding of and arms transfers to Palestinian "rejectionist groups," its attempts to thwart the efforts of the US-led coalition in Iraq and its refusal to turn over al-Qaeda operatives it says are in custody, according to the report.
"During 2003, Iran maintained a high-profile role in encouraging anti-Israeli activity, both rhetorically and operationally," it said, citing Tehran's backing for Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
All of those groups are designated "foreign terrorist organizations" by Washington and subject to US sanctions, as is Iran. The report said Iranian officials had encouraged Palestinians to carry out suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and cited comments by a member of the country's conservative religious leadership urging Iraqis to follow that model in combatting the US-led coalition there.
It also suggested that after Saddam Hussein's ouster in April, Iranian operatives tried to sow discontent with the occupation among Shias in southern Iraq and that elements of the government assisted members of terrorist organizations in escaping the coalition.
Other Middle East nations, with the exception of Syria and Lebanon, had positive records in fighting terrorism in 2003, with Saudi Arabia being singled out for exceptional work after deadly suicide attacks in Riyadh in May and November.
Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism from US lawmakers for its alleged unwillingness to deal with extremism, which manifested itself in the fact that it was home to 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
PRAISE FOR S.ARABIA: But the report lauds Saudi actions taken since then. "I would cite Saudi Arabia as an excellent example of a nation increasingly focusing its political will to fight terrorism," the State Department counter terrorism coordinator, Cofer Black, wrote in the introduction to the report.
"Saudi Arabia has launched an aggressive, comprehensive and unprecedented campaign to hunt down terrorists, uncover their plots and cut off their sources of funding," he said. "I have been greatly impressed with the strides they have made and their seriousness of purpose."
Jordan and Morocco - both of which were sites of terrorist attacks in 2003 - were also cited for their cooperation in the global war on terrorism, as were Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Tunisia and the Gulf states of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. -AFP
