Iran has spent as much as $700 million annually to support terrorist groups, according to a U.S. State Department report released on Wednesday.
“The Iranian regime and its proxies continued to plot and commit terrorist attacks on a global scale,” states the report’s foreword. “In the past, Tehran has spent as much as $700 million per year to support terrorist groups, including [Hezbollah] and Hamas ... ”
However, U.S. sanctions under the Trump administration have “constrained” Iran’s financial support for terrorism.
According to the report, the Islamic Republic is the largest state sponsor of terrorism. Terrorism-related sanctions have been a part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran since the United States left the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018.
Iran has been “directly involved in plotting terrorism through its [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and Ministry of Intelligence and Security, including plots in recent years in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa,” said the State Department.
In addition, it said that the regime permits an Al-Qaeda “facilitation network to operate in Iran, sending money and fighters to conflict zones in Afghanistan and Syria,” and allows Al-Qaeda members “to reside in the country.”
