When President Donald Trump outlined his administration's comprehensive strategy toward Iran, he not only highlighted his concerns with the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA; he stressed the necessity of countering Iran's support for terrorism and its destabilizing activity in the Middle East.
That support stretches from the regime's earliest days, when its agents seized the U.S embassy in Tehran. It includes Iran's founding and funding of Hezbollah, whose operatives bombed the U.S. embassy in Lebanon twice in the 1980's; and its backing of groups in Iraq and Afghanistan that have killed hundreds of American military personnel.
“The Iranian dictatorship's aggression continues to this day,” President Trump said:
“The regime remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and provides assistance to Al-Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist networks. It develop, deploys, and proliferates missiles that threaten American troops and our allies. It harasses American ships and threatens freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and in the Red Sea. It imprisons Americans on false charges.”
