US biggest sponsor of terrorism: Iran MP

A ranking Iranian lawmaker has lashed back at the United States over Washington’s allegation on Iran’s ‘support for terrorism’ and described the US as the biggest sponsor of terrorism in the world.

“Such reports lack legal credibility due to the US double standards toward terrorism,” said Gholam Reza Karami, a member of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy in a Tuesday interview with Mehr news agency.

The Iranian legislator’s remark comes on the heels of the US administration’s August 18 report on terrorism in which the US State Department accused Iran of continuing to fund, train, and provide weapons and ammunition to extremists in neighboring Iraq.

Karami dubbed the US the biggest sponsor of state terrorism and terrorist groups, and lambasted Washington for fabricating a good versus evil dichotomy of terrorism.

He said that the US support of Israel in wars against Hezbollah in 2006 and the Gaza Strip in December 2008 and January 2009 are amongst instances of Washington’s support for terrorism.

He called into question the US claims on advocating human rights and said that the United States’ support for executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war also adds to Washington’s record of backing terrorism.

Meanwhile, Javad Karimi Qoddusi, another member of the committee, said that the US report is aimed at diverting public opinion from the root causes of terrorism.

He also urged the Iranian government on Tuesday to hand in the records of US and Zionist Israel’s support of terrorism to international organizations.