Iran behind violence in Bahrain : US report

Manama : Iran is involved in supporting violence acts of the Bahraini opposition, according to an official US report.

In a report published on Al Arabiya news agency’s website, the US State Department categorised Iran as “the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world.”

The US Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell said in a press briefing on the 2015 Country Reports on Terrorism, “We’re concerned about a wide range of Iranian activities to destabilise the region. That includes their support for some of these allied and proxy groups that operate in Iraq and in Bahrain and in various parts of the Gulf region.”

“Those are issues that we took up in our conversation with the GCC countries after the Camp David summit and developed an entire agenda to focus on those destabilising activities,” Siberell added during the briefing on Thursday.

Al Arabiya mentioned in its report that “the US statements were a result of Tehran’s interference and support of violence in Syria and Iraq.”

Associated Press (AP) attributed Iran’s topping the world’s terrorism-supporting countries to its support to Al Quds Brigades, which is a branch of the Revolutionary Guard and is included in the world terrorist organisations list, to achieve foreign political goals.

The US report explained that “Iran is still providing weapons and financial support to groups like Hezbollah and terrorist Shia militias fighting in Iraq.”

The report also included countries like Syria and Sudan, while Cuba was removed this year and the IS organisation was listed as “the biggest source of threat internationally.”