Last week, Oct. 24, the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv held an important conference titled “Iran at a Crossroads.” Top-notch experts on nuclear arms, on Iranian politics in the President Hassan Rouhani era, on Shiite-Sunni relations and on the implications of a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities participated in the conference. Virtually missing from the agenda, just as from the 5+1 discussions that have taken over the headlines again, was the topic of “conventional” Iranian terror.

While international intelligence organizations are divided over Tehran’s intention to threaten world peace with atomic bombs, as well as over the timeline of its nuclear program, there is no disagreement that Iranian terror has long been around. In May of this year, the annual US State Department report on international terror stated, “In 2012, there was a clear revival of Iran’s state  sponsorship of terrorism, through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), its Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and Tehran’s ally Hezbollah, who remained a significant threat to the stability of Lebanon and the broader region.”

The official American report determines that the tracks of those responsible for terror attacks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and the Far East have led to the Quds Force or Hezbollah. The terrorist activities of the Lebanese organization, the report says, have reached a scope in the last year that has not been seen since the 1990s, including attacks plotted in Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa. The authors of the report note that “with deep roots among Lebanon’s Shiite community and significant backing from the Iranian government, Hezbollah remained the most dangerous and prominent terrorist group in Lebanon.” Moreover, according to this new report, in 2012, arms smuggling continued from Iran to Palestinian terror organizations in Gaza through the Egyptian border.

The 2012 report, which surveyed terror activities in the previous year, determined that the Iranian regime took part in the planning and funding of the assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador to the United States as part of its program to further Iran’s diplomatic goals through international terror. The report accused Iran of providing weapons, training and funding to Shiite militias in Iraq that target Iraqi and American forces, as well as civilians.