As Global Terror Threat Continues to Evolve, Iran Remains Foremost State Sponsor of Terror, Yet Administration Still Lacks Counter-ISIS Strategy and is Lax in Iran Sanctions Application

(Washington, DC) Jun 6, 2016 – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, made the following statement regarding the State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2015. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen:
“The annual State Department Terrorism report is clear: Iran is the foremost state sponsor of terror, providing training, financial support, and equipment and arms to terror groups around the world. President Obama still has a wide variety of sanctions available to him to target these illicit actions by the Iranian regime, yet refuses to take any action and is being out maneuvered by Tehran. The administration must fully and vigorously enforce existing sanctions on Iran, and it must not continue to try to thwart Congressional action to add additional sanctions that seeks to hold the regime accountable for its support for terror and other illicit behavior.
“It has also become clear that terror groups, like ISIS or al-Qaeda, have learned to decentralize, take advantage of permissible environments, and exploit the weaknesses in counter-terror operations. Troublingly, we remain one step behind because the administration is unwilling to take the decisive action needed to contain and defeat these threats. The administration needs to take a proactive approach at countering these threats and produce a credible counter-ISIS plan rather than continuing with this series of half-measures designed only to maintain the status quo and kick the can down the road.”