Iran,
Hezbollah left off US terror threat listing
RT,
17
March, 2015
Iran
and Hezbollah were left out of an annual terrorism threat assessment
report offered in late February to the US Senate by Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper. Iran and Hezbollah had been
fixtures on the annual report before 2015.
Iran’s
efforts to fight Sunni extremists, including the so-called Islamic
State (IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS), were touted in the
unclassified version of the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US
Intelligence Communities, released recently.
While
a US-led coalition has targeted Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the
report noted Tehran’s push to keep “ISIL from gaining large
swaths of additional territory” in Iraq. Iran is allied with both
the Iraqi and Syrian governments. So, with the US, it has a common
foe in Islamic State.
In
the Middle East, Iran has “intentions to dampen sectarianism, build
responsive partners, and deescalate tensions with Saudi Arabia,”
the report noted, though it warned that some Iranian actions to
“protect and empower Shia communities are fueling growing fears and
sectarian responses,” which could hinder regional stability.
Hezbollah,
a Shiite group based in Lebanon and funded by Iran, has also fought
Islamic State militants in both Syria and Iraq, though they are not
part of the US-led coalition of 26 nations that has used airstrikes
to counter Islamic State’s sprawl in the region.
Both
Iran and Hezbollah were included in the ‘Terrorism’ section of
the 2014 version of the threat assessment report, which said both
“continue to directly threaten the interests of U.S. allies.
Hizballah [sic] has increased its global terrorist activity in recent
years to a level that we have not seen since the 1990s.”
Iran
was included in the ‘Terrorism’ section of previous threat
assessments, in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
The
ongoing negotiations between Iran and the US, among other world
powers, regarding Tehran’s nuclear program are likely another
reason Iran was not included in the threat assessment.
The
National Intelligence report said Tehran has “overarching strategic
goals of enhancing its security, prestige, and regional influence
[that] have led it to pursue capabilities to meet its civilian goals
and give it the ability to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons,
if it chooses to do so.”
The
report did not say whether Iran would seek nuclear weapons, but it
did say that if Iran should decide to do so, it faces no
“insurmountable technical barriers to producing a nuclear weapon.”
Tehran’s
exclusion from the terror threat designation is part of Washington’s
strategy, Max Abrahms, a member at the Council of Foreign Relations,
told Newsweek.
“I
think that we are looking at a quid pro quo, where Iran helps us with
counter-terrorism and we facilitate their nuclear ambitions and cut
down on our labelling of them as terrorists,” says Abrahms. “The
world has changed. The Sunni threat has gotten worse, the Islamic
State is a greater danger than Al-Qaeda ever was, and the Iranians
have really come up big in terms of helping us out in combating the
Islamic State.”
According
to the Times of Israel, Israeli think tank Meir Amit Intelligence and
Terrorism Information Center pointed out that Iran and Hezbollah were
considered terror threats in a separate report by the US Defense
Intelligence Agency.
“Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and Lebanese Hezbollah
are instruments of Iran’s foreign policy and its ability to project
power in Iraq, Syria, and beyond,”the US Defense Intelligence
Agency told the US Senate in an assessment also offered on February
26.
“Hezbollah
continues to support the Syrian regime, pro-regime militants and
Iraqi Shia militants in Syria. Hezbollah trainers and advisors in
Iraq assist Iranian and Iraqi Shia militias fighting Sunni extremists
there. Select Iraqi Shia militant groups also warned of their
willingness to fight US forces returning to Iraq.”
Meanwhile,
talks regarding Iran’s nuclear program are set to resume in
Switzerland in the coming days. Little is known about the deal being
negotiated, but leaked information over the past several weeks
indicates that it would allow Iran to develop a civilian atomic
program under strict supervision, which would make it very difficult
to build a nuclear weapon.
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