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or the past few months, we have had the “honor” of reading many articles and news reports in which countries have been described as major threats and terrorism-supporting states without any sustainable evidence. The titles like “Pakistan Terrorism Heaven”, Iran the Most Active Terror Sponsor, Pakistan Supports Terrorism and Iran Worst Terror Proliferators, among others, are very insulting and unfair as they present sovereign countries and their citizens as terrorists.  

Are the accusations on these and other states the work of bad journalism or maybe corrupt journalists, or both; or maybe government propaganda or failed intelligence?

Iran has been accused of using the Ministry of Intelligence and Security to gather intelligence to plan terrorist attacks; of giving weapons and support to the Iraqi insurgency; of giving weapons and support to the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan; for the kidnapping and murder of the US Colonel William Higgins in Lebanon, among other things.

We are all more or less aware of the accusations against Iran and current public opinion concerning Iran, but there are many things about Iran which are less known to the public.

The reasons for Iran’s isolation from the rest of the world, and Iran’s classification as a terrorist state, through Iran’s defiant policy and Iran’s ties with Hezbollah. Other reasons, like links to the Islamic Jihad (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) are more or less speculation, rather than the real deal.  

Meanwhile, Pakistan has been accused by many countries like India, Poland, Bangladesh, Iran, Afghanistan, the United States and the United Kingdom of persistent involvement in terrorism in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Pakistan has been accused by the Human Rights Watch of sheltering and training the Taliban; bankrolling Taliban operations; providing diplomatic support for the Taliban; arranging training for Taliban fighters; recruiting skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies; planning and directing offensives; providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel; and, on several occasions apparently, directly providing combat support. Pakistan is also said to be a haven for terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Omar, Lashkar-e-Toiba, and Sipah-e-Sahaba.

Pakistan and Iran are not the only major victims of terrorist attacks. A report on terrorist incidents shows that Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Somalia, Yemen, Israel, Lebanon, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Philippines are as well major victims of terrorism.
 

Ivan Simic
Belgrade