Iran ‘unwilling’ to bring al-Qaeda members to justice

In its annual report on terrorism, the U.S. State Department said Friday that Iran continued with its “terrorist-related” activity last year including giving support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and not handing in al-Qaeda senior members to justice.

“In 2014, Iran continued to provide arms, financing, training and the facilitation of primarily Iraq Shia and Afghan fighters to support the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown,” the report said.

It added: “Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qaeda members it continued to detain and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody.”

The report comes when a prospect of a historic nuclear accord with the United States and the six world powers is on the horizon with a June 30 deadline.

The New York Times, meanwhile, described the report as not alluding “that Iranian officials are conspiring to kill Americans. Nor does it accuse Iraqi militias backed by Iran of plotting to attack American advisers in Iraq.”

It also said that it “does not provide specific figures on Iranian operations that might indicate whether they are increasing or decreasing.”

But said the report “paints a picture of an aggressive Iranian foreign policy that has often been contrary to the interests of the United States.”