The U.S. Departments of State and Justice convened the fifth meeting of the Countering Transnational Terrorism Forum in Budapest, Hungary to take action to counter Iranian terrorism.
The meeting brought together 35 governments from the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe to discuss the destabilizing activities by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), and to take action to counter Iran and its proxies and partners in terrorist activities. The senior leadership at the forum discussed tactics used by the IRGC and MOIS around the globe.
Those in attendance agreed on the need to remain vigilant against the threats and shared strategies on leveraging all available methods to effectively disrupt and deter Iran’s terrorist plots, including curbing terrorist travel, screening visas, pursuing prosecutions, and imposing sanctions and designations, officials said.
“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,” the report stated. “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.”
Established in 2019, the CTTF is a global workshop to improve international awareness and coordinate on Iran’s terrorist and other criminal activities.
“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,” the report stated. “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.”