Lavrov: Iran was never seen with links to terrorist groups

“Iran has never been seen having any ties with Daesh or al-Nusra Front, or any other structure affiliated with these terrorist organizations and included in the relevant UN Security Council list”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday. Indeed, “Iran contributes to combating IS” and must be a member of the “anti-terrorist front.”
DEBKAfile: Lavrov omitted to mention Tehran’s sponsorship of Shiite terrorist groups created as its surrogates, such as the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as Al Qods, the terrorist arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Lavrov was responding to Saturday’s claim by US Defense Secretary James Mattis that Iran was the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, and President Donald Trump’s remark Sunday that Iran was the “number one terrorist state, sending money all over the place and weapons.”

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later announced that Russia’s disagrees with Trump’s remarks.