Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism, the U.S. State Department said in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism for the year 2005.
Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) were directly involved in the planning and support of terrorist acts and continued to exhort a variety of groups, especially Palestinian groups with leadership cadres in Syria and Lebanese Hizballah, to use terrorism in pursuit of their goals, the report said.
In addition, the IRGC was increasingly involved in supplying lethal assistance to Iraqi militant groups, which destabilises Iraq, it added.
Iran continues to be unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qaida members it detained in 2003. Iran has refused to identify publicly these senior members in its custody on security grounds. Iran has also resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its al-Qaida detainees to their countries of origin or to third countries for interrogation and/or trial.
Iran maintained a high-profile role in encouraging anti-Israeli terrorist activity — rhetorically, operationally, and financially. Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali”> Khamenei and President [Mahmoud”> Ahmadinejad praised Palestinian terrorist operations.
The State Department report said that Iran presented a particular WMD terrorism concern, given its active sponsorship of terrorism and its continued development of a nuclear program.
It said that Iran was also capable of producing biological and chemical agents or weapons and could support terrorist organisations seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
