State Department official says Iran has been transferring missiles to terrorists
WASHINGTON _ The State Department on Wednesday revealed that Iran has been transferring ballistic missiles to regional partners that the United States views as terrorists.
The revelation by the special envoy for Iran policy, Brian Hook, came at the start of a contentious Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Hook argued that evidence of Iran's transfer of ballistic missile technology to regional extremist groups justified the Trump administration's 2018 decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal.
"While the United States was still in the JCPOA, Iran expanded its ballistic missile activities to partners across the region, including Hezbollah, Palestinian terrorist groups and Shia militias in Iraq," Hook said, referring to the acronym for the multinational nuclear accord. "Beginning last year, Iran transferred whole missiles to a separate designated terrorist group in the region."
Hook did not name the specific terrorist group that received complete ballistic missiles.
Hook, who recently was in the running to be President Donald Trump's national security adviser, said Iran is developing missile technology "solely" for the purpose of exporting it to regional proxies. "This arsenal is then used to target our ally, Israel."
But ranking member Robert Menendez of New Jersey, one of the few Senate Democrats to vote against the Iran nuclear deal when it came up for a vote in 2015, charged it is Trump who is now endangering Israel's security with his apparently impetuous decision to withdraw U.S. special forces from northern Syria.
Menendez asked Hook if the administration has secured any agreements from the Turkish or Iraqi governments to prevent Iran from moving troops and supplies through northern Syria to the border with Israel.
Hook said multiple meetings on the subject have taken place but he did not disclose whether any agreements have been secured.
_CQ-Roll Call
