Iran calls US annual report on terrorism 'ridiculous'

Iran has described the US's annual report on terrorism, which accuses Tehran of being one of the biggest sponsors of global terrorism, as "ridiculous" and "false".

Iran's Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement on Saturday said both Iran and Syria, which have been placed on the report since 1984, increased their "terrorist links" in 2015, Efe news reported.

Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari responding to the report said: "The US State Department's report on terrorism has ridiculed blatant realities and has turned into the best document for lack of credibility of the US by justifying the false accusations of Iran's support for terrorism."

Jaberi said the struggles of nations that are under occupations to achieve freedom and independence "are not instances of terrorism".

He said that parts of the report based on such struggles are rejected because they "reflect the will of the Zionist regime as the biggest symbol of occupation, state terrorism, violation of human rights and implementation of the policies based on massacre, suppression and denial of the existence of the Palestinian nation".

The statement called the US the "biggest supporter of state terrorism, by unconditional support for the Zionist regime ... and now by practical support for the growth of extremism and terrorism as well as by ignoring the large-scale financial and political support by Saudi Arabia and its other allies for the spread of this heinous phenomena throughout the world".

The US report said Iran continued during 2015 to support terrorism-related activities by Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and several other groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.

--IANS

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