Even a surrealist painter like Salvadore Dali would have trouble capturing an image of the courting of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Obama administration while the state department has designated Tehran is the #1 state sponsor of terrorism.
Despite freeing tens of billions of dollars in assets that the US admits will partly be used to fund terrorism, paying ransom for our captured sailors, and resisting calls from Congress to sanction Tehran for illegal missile tests, the Iranians continue on their merry way, sowing terror and fear through their proxies while dismissing the US as "the enemy."
The department's acting coordinator for counterterrorism, Justin Siberell, briefed reporters Thursday on the report's content, saying the document was used to assess the effectiveness of the effort to combat terrorism and to determine where to best place resources.
On Iran, the report said that country "remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world."
The report also said that Iran was continuing to provide arms and cash to terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia terrorist groups, including Kata'ib Hizballah (KH). Both groups are designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations in the report.
Iran is one of three listed state sponsors of terrorism, the others being Syria and Sudan. Cuba was removed from the list last year.
Siberell added that the department was "concerned about a wide range of Iranian activities to destabilize the region."
Iran's designation and continued sponsoring of terrorism is bound to fuel criticism of the Iran nuclear deal. Critics of the deal have charged that the removal of economic sanctions would allow Iran to increase its support of terror groups.
During an interview in Davos, Switzerland, Secretary of State John Kerry admitted in Januarythat some of the money made available to Iran by the removal of sanctions would "end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists," referring to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The report also described the global terrorist threat in 2015 as "increasingly decentralized and diffuse," noting that ISIS once again was "the greatest threat globally."
It included a statistical annex prepared by the University of Maryland, which said that worldwide there were 11,774 terrorist attacks in 92 countries in 2015 which resulted in more than 28,300 total deaths.
Talking with your enemies is one thing. Assisting them in their nefarious actions is quite another. It is beyond belief that the Obama administration is bending over backwards not to "offend" the Iranians while throwing money at them to carry out their terrorist agenda. This is especially true when you consider that our relationship with the Iranians is one of unrequited love. Like a teenager who has a crush on a supermodel, the Obama administration can't quite seem to understand that no amount of forebearance on our part will get the Iranians to like us.
In another sign that the historic nuclear deal can only go so far in rebuilding ties frayed by decades of mistrust, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed the U.S. and the "evil" U.K., calling them his country's main enemies. In a speech marking the 27th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic - Khamenei also ruled out cooperation with the U.S. on regional issues.
"We have many small and big enemies, but foremost among them are America and this very evil Britain. America has continued its enmity toward Iran since [the 1979] revolution. ... It is a huge mistake to trust evil Britain and the Great Satan [the United States]," Khamenei, known for his vitriol-laced speeches deriding the West, said Friday.
Considering that the nuclear agreement will not prevent Iran from building a weapon if they are determined to do so, the sole reason for the attitude by the White House toward Iranian aggressions and hate is to keepTehran from backing out of Obama's "signature" foreign policy achievement - the nuclear deal. In other words, the president's "legacy" trumps national security and the honor of the United States.
About what we've come to expect from the man who cares more about "making history" than protecting the country.
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