U.S. terror report sees threat from Iran, improvement in Syria

WASHINGTON -- The State Department has kept Middle East nations on its list of terrorist sponsors but said Syria has stopped the groups it sponsors from carrying out terrorist attacks abroad.

The report focuses on what it termed Iranian-sponsored terrorism. It says Iran "continues to plan and conduct terrorist attacks, including the assassination of dissidents abroad. It supports a variety of groups that use terrorism to pursue their goals -- including several that oppose the Middle East peace process -- by providing varying degrees of money, training, safehaven, and weapons."

Iraq also provides haven to terrorist organizations, the report says. The State Department said Sabri Al-Banna, the leader of the Abu Nidal organization may have relocated to Baghdad late last year.

The State Department annual report "Patterns of Global Terrorism, designates Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria as state sponsors of international terrorism. The designation means that Washington continues to apply sanctions to these nations.

"Terrorist attacks sponsored by states have declined in recent years but remain a serious threat," the report, released on Friday, says. "With state sponsorship a terrorist group often receives safehaven, money, weapons, training, logistic support, or use of diplomatic facilities. Some of the most violent terrorist attacks on record would not have been possible without such sponsorship."

The report says Cuba and Syria have reduced its support terrorism. The State Department says Cuba has reduced significantly its support to leftist revolutionaries in Latin America and elsewhere, but it maintains close ties to other state sponsors of terrorism and leftist insurgent groups and continues to provide safehaven to a number of international terrorists."

The State Department says Damascus, despite its stated commitment to the Middle East peace process, has refused to stop attacks on Israel by Hizbullah and Palestinian groups in south Lebanon. Syria also permitted a meeting of Palestinian rejectionist groups in Damascus in December to reaffirm their public opposition to the peace process.

But the report says "The Syrian government continues to restrain the international activities of some groups and to participate in a multinational monitoring group to prevent attacks against civilian targets in southern Lebanon and northern Israel."

"There is no evidence of direct Syrian involvement in acts of international terrorism since 1986, but Syria continues to provide sanctuary and support for a number of terrorist groups that seek to disrupt the Middle East peace process," the report says.

Sudan, the report says, provides haven to such groups as Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaida organization, Hizbullah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

The State Department said the drop in state support of terrorism has been countered by the rise of groups that are less directly dependent on states. "Some have broad geographical reach, and have found ways to support themselves through criminal enterprises such as drug smuggling, kidnapping and extortion," the report says.