US keeps Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba on terror blacklist*
Trend News Agency
August 19, 2011
The United States retained Iran and its ally Syria as well as Sudan and Cuba on a list of alleged state sponsors of terrorism Thursday, after blacklisting the countries the previous year, AFP reported.
In an annual report, the State Department said "Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010," citing "financial, material and logistic support" for militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia.
It said Iran backed Palestinian groups Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, along with Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Iraqi Shiite Muslim militant groups.
The State Department said its support for such groups "had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy."
Iran was first designated a state sponsor of terror in 1984.
The Country Reports on Terrorism was published late, more than three months after its April 30 due date, at which time US law requires the secretary of state to provide Congress a full report about countries and groups deemed to be implicated in terrorism.
* Url:http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1920287.html
