Participants sit in an anti-extremism conference in the city of Qom, 78 miles (125 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. Shiite and Sunni clerics from about 80 countries gathered in Iran’s holy city of Qom to develop a strategy to combat extremists including the Islamic State group that has captured large parts of Iraq and Syria.
WASHINGTON — Iran and Hezbollah have been removed from the terrorism section of an unclassified report presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee by National Intelligence Director James Clapper. The Feb. 26 report, “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community,” devotes its terrorism section mainly to the spread of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as the so-called “threat to the West” highlighted by the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January.
Just last year, both Iran and Hezbollah were included in the terrorism section of the security assessment as entities that “continue to directly threaten the interests of U.S. allies.”
While Iran has been removed from the report’s terrorism section, U.S. policy and propaganda regarding the Islamic Republic and its objectives have not shifted. The report’s section on Iran states: “The Islamic Republic of Iran is an ongoing threat to US national interests because of its support to the Assad regime in Syria, promulgation of anti-Israeli policies, development of advanced military capabilities, and pursuit of its nuclear program.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah is only mentioned once in the 25-page report’s brief summary pertaining to Lebanon. The report states that the resistance group is facing attacks by ISIS along the Lebanon-Syria border.
Yet a separate report issued in February by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency includes both Iran and Hezbollah in its terrorism section. The report states, “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and Lebanese Hizballah are instruments of Iran’s foreign policy and its ability to project power in Iraq, Syria and beyond.”
As the U.S. continues to indulge in obscure rhetoric, with one report contradicting the other, Hezbollah’s Deputy Chief Naim Qassem reserved harsh words for the U.S. and its coalition claiming to target ISIS.
“We hear the world wants to confront ISIS because it represents takfiri terrorism. Who created ISIS? Those who want to fight [ISIS] are the ones who raised and funded ISIS,” Qassem said on March 13 in Beirut, as reported by Lebanon’s Daily Star.
Qassem also spoke about the role of Gulf countries in funding ISIS, as well as Israel providing medical treatment to wounded ISIS members.
Iran’s PressTV reported on March 16 that Tehran had ruled out military intervention in Iraq and Syria but pledged defense and humanitarian aid as part of its efforts to combat ISIS.
“America’s goals are completely opposed to our goals”
Hezbollah has been designated a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” by the U.S. State Department since 1997. Hezbollah was formed in 1982 in response to Israel’s colonial expansion in the Middle East and has refused to recognize Israel’s legitimacy, thus rendering its resistance a valid focal point of anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle.
The European Union followed the United States’ lead in 2013, declaring Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organization. The distinction between Hezbollah’s military wing and its political leadership, however, made it possible for EU countries to maintain political ties with the group’s political leadership.
Lebanon opposed the EU’s decision, and countries including Spain and Italy expressed reservations. But the move was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who stated that Hezbollah “has imposed terrorist rule in wide sections of Lebanon, has converted them into an Iranian protectorate and is stockpiling tens of thousands of rockets there.”
The current nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 (the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, plus Germany) and Iran, as well as efforts to counter ISIS, may have contributed to the slight shift in U.S. foreign policy which led to the removal of both entities from the terrorism section of the intelligence report.
Ahead of the March 31 deadline for a deal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reportedly spoke with with British Prime Minister David Cameron over the phone, stating: “We are acting in the national and international interest and we should not lose this exceptional opportunity.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif indicated progress with regard to the discussions, but didn’t provide much detail. “Technical and political solutions to the issues that were stumbling blocks have been found,” Zarif wrote in a Facebook post, as reported by Sputnik on March 21.
That same day, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei clarified that the negotiations with the U.S. “are solely on the nuclear issue and nothing else.”
“In the regional issues, America’s goals are completely opposed to our goals,” Khamenei told a crowd in northeastern Iran.
Indeed, U.S. goals in the region have been clearly manifested through its agenda of forcing regime change and arming militias. This strategy ensures the uncontrollable spread of arms, permanent turmoil and continued colonization in the Middle East. Iran, on the other hand, has opposed U.S. and Israeli interference — even aiding Hamas in developing more powerful missiles which were used as part of Palestinians’ defense during Operation Protective Edge.
Israel’s ire — and its own nuclear revelations
While the ongoing negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 have been widely hailed as positive, Israel has once again expressed its ire against a possible framework and the removal of sanctions as part of the negotiations with Iran. Iran is targeted by U.S., U.N. Security Council and EU sanctions, based on allegations that the country is attempting to manufacture nuclear weapons.
An anonymous Israeli official lamented to the Times of Israel the possible forthcoming deal, asserting that Israel’s security concerns were not being addressed. “The deal is bad because of its readiness to remove sanctions without any America demand from Iran to stop the terror,” the official said.
It is worth noting, though, that Israel’s criticism is coming on the heels of the Pentagon declassifying a 1987 document on Israel’s own nuclear program. The Department of Defense document, “Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations,” provides detailed descriptions of Israel’s military technology and nuclear infrastructure in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the report, Israel’s nuclear development research laboratories were “equivalent to our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.”
The report is the first document to establish knowledge of Israel as a nuclear power — a status which the settler-colonial state has been careful to leave to speculation throughout the decades, even after information was leaked by former Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu in 1986.