U.S. Intelligence Chief Cites Threats from Iran, Hizbullah after Criticism over Terror Report

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said that Iran and Hizbullah continue to threaten the U.S. despite a report released earlier this year by the intelligence claiming that Tehran and the Shiite party have been removed from the U.S. terror list.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Clapper told Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee that Iran and Hizbullah “directly threaten the interests of the United State and our allies.”

The intelligence community considers Iran to be the “foremost state sponsor of terrorism” and sees Tehran increasing its ability to influence regional crises and conduct terrorism, largely through Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hizbullah, Clapper wrote in the June 3 letter, the contents of which haven’t been previously reported.

The intelligence report that Hizbullah and Iran are no longer enrolled on a U.S. list of terror threats was released by Clapper on February 26 to the Senate.

But Clapper wrote the letter this month in response to a document that lawmakers sent in April expressing concern that the unclassified threat assessment report “didn’t fully represent the threat posed by Iran’s support for terrorist organizations and certain Shiite militias in the Middle East,” said the Wall Street Journal.

G.K.

H.K.