US says Iran remains ‘world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism’

Iran remains the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism, according to a report released on Saturday by the US State Department.

“The regime 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,” the State Department said in its annual release of the “Country Reports on Terrorism” for 2018.

“Tehran has funded international terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It also has engaged in its own terrorist plotting around the world, particularly in Europe,” the report added.

It cited an incident in January 2018 when German authorities investigated 10 suspected Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Quds Force (IRGC – QF) operatives. During summer last year, Belgian, French and German authorities thwarted an Iranian plot to bomb a political opposition rally near Paris.

Speaking to Al Arabiya, US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said that Washington has made it harder for Iran to conduct foreign interference operations as “Iran doesn’t have the money that it used to.”

“This is money that the regime spends in places like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen,” Hook said.