Country Reports on Terrorism 2023
The Bureau of Counterterrorism
The Bureau of Counterterrorism
In 2023, Iran remained the leading state sponsor of terrorism, facilitating a wide range of terrorist and other illicit activities in the United States and globally. Regionally, Iran continued supporting acts of terrorism through its proxies and partner groups – such as Hizballah, Ansar Allah (commonly referred to as the Houthis), Hamas, and al-Ashtar Brigades – in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Yemen. In the last months of 2023, Houthi militants in Yemen engaged in numerous attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea, significantly disrupting maritime commerce and global trade. Separately, Iranian-aligned militia groups (IAMG) in Iraq and Syria conducted repeated attacks with unmanned aircraft systems against U.S. forces in the region in attempts to compel their withdrawal. Globally, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security remained Iran’s primary actors involved in supporting terrorist recruitment, financing, and plotting across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
State Sponsors of Terrorism
Iran
Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran continued its support for terrorist activity in 2023, including support for Hizballah, U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank and Gaza including Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran-aligned militia groups (IAMGs) in Iraq and Syria. After the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Iran-backed groups took advantage of the regional conflict to further their objectives. Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) to provide support to terrorist organizations, provide cover for associated covert operations, and create instability in the region. The IRGC-QF is Iran’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorist activity abroad. In 2019 the Secretary of State designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including IRGC-QF, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Iran uses regional militant and proxy groups to facilitate deniability and to shield it from accountability for its destabilizing policies.
In 2023, Iran continued providing weapons systems and other support to Hamas and other U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist groups, including Palestine Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Although there is no evidence that Iran knew about Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel in advance, its long-standing material, financial, and training support to Hamas enabled Hamas to execute the attack.
In Iraq and Syria, Iran supported various IAMGs in 2023, including the U.S.-designated terrorist groups Kata’ib Hizballah, Harakat al-Nujaba, and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, with sophisticated weapons – including increasingly accurate and lethal unmanned aerial systems (UAS) – support, funding, and training. On October 18, IAMGs restarted attacks against US military and diplomatic facilities, which came after an 18-month general pause in attacks in Iraq and a six-month pause in attacks in Syria. By the end of 2023, IAMGs had attacked US facilities in Iraq and Syria more than 100 times.
Iran also bolstered terrorist groups operating in Syria, including Hizballah, which has provided significant support to the Assad regime. Iran views the Assad regime as a crucial ally. The Iranian government used Iraq and Syria for transshipment of weapons to Hizballah. Iranian forces have backed militia operations in Syria and Iraq directly, with artillery, rockets, drones, and armored vehicles. Through financial or residency enticements, Iran has facilitated and coerced primarily Shia fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan to participate in the Assad regime’s brutal actions in Syria. These Iran-aligned forces conducted multiple attacks on U.S. forces in Syria.
Since the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah conflict, Iran has supplied Hizballah in Lebanon with thousands of rockets, missiles, and small arms in violation of UNSCR 1701. Israeli security officials and politicians expressed concerns that Iran was supplying Hizballah with advanced weapons systems and technologies, as well as assisting the group in creating infrastructure that would permit it to produce its own rockets and missiles, thereby threatening Israel from Lebanon and Syria. Iran has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Hizballah and trained thousands of its fighters at camps in Iran. Hizballah fighters have been used extensively in Syria to support the Assad regime.
In Bahrain, Iran has continued to provide weapons, support, and training to local Shia militant groups, including the al-Ashtar Brigades and Saraya al-Mukhtar, both U.S.-designated terrorist groups.
In Yemen, Iran has provided a wide range of weapons, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAS) and missiles, training, and other support to Houthi militants, who in late 2023 began attacking Israel and commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden with missiles, UAS, and small boats. The Houthis seized the commercial vessel Galaxy Leader and continued to hold its crew hostage.
In 2023, Iranian forces continued a pattern of attacks on commercial ships in the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, including a December 23 drone attack on the Chem Pluto, a Liberian-flagged tanker carrying oil. Additionally, in 2023, Iran seized commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters.
As in past years, the Iranian government continued supporting terrorist plots or associated activities targeting dissidents and other perceived enemies of the regime. In 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging three individuals connected with Iran in a plot to assassinate an Iranian dissident in New York City. Also in 2023, a United Kingdom court found a man guilty of attempting to collect information for terrorist purposes on the London-based Iran International, a media company that is critical of the Iranian regime. In recent years, Albania, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all either arrested, convicted, or expelled Iranian government officials implicated in various terrorist plots in their respective territories. Denmark similarly recalled its ambassador from Tehran after learning of an Iran-backed plot to kill an Iranian dissident in that country.
In an extension from 2022, the Albanian government in 2023 continued to be a victim of cyberattacks emanating from Iran, likely in response to Albania hosting members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq – an Iranian dissident group that advocates overthrowing the Iranian government. Additionally, Iran pursued or supported terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in 2023, including a thwarted plot to attack Israeli tourists in Cyprus. These plots were being implemented by current and former members of the IRGC-QF.
Senior al-Qa’ida members continued to reside in Iran, where the authorities still refuse to identify publicly members they know to be living in the country. Iran has allowed al-Qa’ida facilitators to operate a core transit pipeline through Iran since at least 2009, enabling al-Qa’ida to move funds and fighters to South Asia and Syria, among other locales.
