AJC: State Department Report Confirms Ever Growing Dangers of Iran, Hezbollah

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May 31, 2013, 03:47 ET

NEW YORK, May 31, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A U.S. State Department annual report on terrorism confirms that Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah have been increasing their combined efforts to carry out deadly, violent acts of terrorism worldwide.

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"Iran and Hezbollah's terrorist activity has reached a tempo unseen since the 1990s," the State Department concludes in its newly released "Country Reports on Terrorism." Iran's sponsorship of terrorism overseas underwent "a marked resurgence" in 2012, "with attacks plotted in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Africa," the report said.

Terror targets included an attack on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed six, as well as thwarted strikes in India, Thailand, Georgia and Kenya.

"The reality is Iran has long been the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and the Hezbollah organization it helped create and today supports works hand-in-glove with its Tehran patrons," said AJC Executive Director David Harris.

In response, AJC has stepped up its advocacy efforts, urging the European Union, at long last, to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The AJC campaign was the core message of Harris's commentary this week on the CBS radio network, and will be featured in a full-page AJC ad in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Earlier this week, Argentine Prosecutor Albert Nisman issued a major report on Iranian terror activities in Latin America. He traced the roots of Iran's global terror plan to a 1982 seminar in Tehran for Muslim leaders from around the world that was "a turning point in the regime's policy for exporting the revolution, including the use of violence and terrorism."

SOURCE American Jewish Committee