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Copyright © 1994-98, by the Middle East Data Project, Inc. All rights reserved.
Iranian support for terrorism continues (Serial 4305)
The Islamic Republic has not carried out any acts of terrorism on European soil since President Khatami took office in August 1997, but its record elsewhere has not changed a great deal.
In his CNN Jan. 7 interview - and in all previous and subsequent speeches - President Khatami has claimed as legitimate Iran's support for the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which the U.S. and most Western states consider a terrorist organization. He also proudly claimed Iranian support for the Palestinian struggle, although in January he tried to differentiate between attacks against civilians (which he condemned), and "legitimate acts of resistance" (which he supported).
• On Sept. 1, 1997, Khatami called Israel "the greatest manifestation of international terrorism," while reaffirming Iran's support to Hezbollah, which he called the Lebanese "resistance" movement. "We see resistance against aggressors as the right of all free nations in the world. Within the framework of revolutionary and Islamic values, the Islamic Republic will defend the right of these nations."
• Also in September, dozens of Jamaa Islamiya activists were said to be training at Hezbollah camps in the Bekaa and in southern Lebanon, according to Egyptian press accounts. Egypt reportedly presented a confidential note to the Lebanese government asking that they be extradited.
• On Oct. 11, Iran reiterated its "full support" for Hezbollah following a meeting between Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Sadder and Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who came to Tehran heading a large delegation. On Oct. 12, Nasrallah met with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi. Nasrallah also met with Khatami, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene'i, former president Rafsanjani, and the commander of the IRGC, Yehya Safavi. Nasrallah met again with Kharrazi in Damascus in November, IRNA reported.
• An Egyptian newspaper, Al-Arabi, reported that a senior Iranian official met with representatives of Jamaa Islamiya, including Mustafa Hamzah, a prime suspect in the failed 1995 assassination attempt against President Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
• In November, IRNA reported that Mohsen Rezai, now Rafsanjani's deputy at the Expediency Council, received delegations in Tehran from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
• In November and December, Israel intercepted two Hezbollah suicide bombers attempting to cross the border into Israel from Lebanon, including a German-origin Hezbollah activist, Stefan Smirak.
• Also since Mr. Khatami took office, Iran's Cultural Attaché in Buenos Aires has reportedly been asked to leave the country because of his possible connection to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy and the 1994 bombing of AMIA, the Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires.
• On Dec. 8, the opposition Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran claimed that "Iranian agents" killed five KDPI party activists in armed clashes inside Iraqi Kurdistan, repeating a pattern that led to scores of deaths in 1996.
• In January 1998, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Sadr reportedly met with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon, according to Al Sharq al Awsat.
While contacts such as these are to be expected, given the Islamic Republic's long-standing ties to Hezbollah and to other radical Islamic groups, Khatami has gone out of his way to warmly welcome Hezbollah leaders to Tehran, and has repeatedly insisted that Iranian support to the group would continue.