To pressure states to stop such support, U.S. law imposes trade and other restrictions on countries determined by the secretary of state to have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism by supporting, training, supplying, or providing safe haven to known terrorists.

The United States currently lists Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria as state supporters of terrorism. The list is sent annually to Congress, although countries can be added or removed at any time circumstances warrant.

Cuba no longer is able to actively support armed struggle in Latin America or other parts of the world because of severe ongoing economic problems. While there was no direct evidence of its sponsorship of terrorist acts in 1995, the Cuban government continued to provide safe haven for several international terrorists. Cuba has not renounced political support for groups that engage in international terrorism. Iran continued in 1995 to be the world's most active supporter of international terrorism. Although Tehran tried to project a moderate image in the West, it continued to assassinate dissidents abroad and maintained its support and financing of groups that pose a threat to U.S. citizens. Iranian authorities reaffirmed the validity of the death sentence imposed on British author Salman Rushdie, although some Iranian officials claimed that the government of Iran would not implement the fatwa.

No specific acts of terrorism attributed to the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hizballah in 1995 were on the scale of the July 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, which is believed to have been perpetrated by Hizballah. Hizballah continued attempts to undermine the Middle East peace process and oppose Western interests throughout the Middle East.

Iran also supports other radical organizations that commit terrorism in opposition to the peace process, including HAMAS, the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine--General Command (PFLP-GC). It also provides safe haven to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist group fighting for an independent Kurdish state that carried out numerous terrorist acts in 1995 against Turkish interests. During 1995 several acts of political violence in northern Iraq matched Baghdad's pattern of using terrorism against the local population and regime defectors. These included a bombing attack on the Iraqi National Congress and the poisoning of a number of regime defectors. Iraq continues to provide a safe haven for various terrorist groups.

Libya continued for another year its defiance of the demands of U.N. Security Council Resolutions adopted in response to its involvement in the bombings of Pan Am flight 103 (1988) and UTA flight 772 (1989). These resolutions demand that Libya turn over for trial the two intelligence agents indicted for the PA 103 bombing, cooperate with U.S., U.K., and French authorities in investigating the Pan Am and UTA bombings, pay compensation to victims, and cease all support for terrorism. Instead, Libya continued to foster disingenuous "compromises" aimed at diluting or evading the resolutions.

It also continued hosting terrorist groups like the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). Further, an investigation into the murder of PIJ leader Fathi Shaqaqi in Malta in October 1995 revealed that he had long been a Libyan client. Tripoli also continued to harass and intimidate the Libyan exile community; it is believed to be responsible for the abduction of U.S. resident Mansur Kikhia in December 1993 and was blamed by Libyan exiles for the murder of a Libyan oppositionist in London in November 1995. The Libyan charge in London was expelled in 1995 for threatening and surveilling Libyan exiles in the United Kingdom. North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK) is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since 1987. Since 1993 the DPRK has made several efforts to reiterate a stated position of opposition to all forms of international terrorism.

The DPRK government since 1970 has provided safe haven to several members of the Japanese Communist League--Red Army Faction, who participated in an aircraft hijacking in 1970. Sudan came into sharper focus in 1995 as a center of international terrorist activities. By year's end it was at odds with many of its neighbors. Uganda and Eritrea had severed diplomatic relations with Khartoum because of its support of armed opposition groups in those countries.

Ethiopia and Egypt accused Sudan of complicity in one of the year's highest profile terrorist crimes -- the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa on 26 June, attributed to the Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group or IG). Surviving assailants captured by Ethiopian police incriminated the Sudanese government, which is dominated by the National Islamic Front (NIF), in planning the crime and training the assailants. Three conspirators are believed to be in Sudan. When Khartoum refused to cooperate in apprehending them, the Organization for African Unity (OAU) called for Sudan to hand over the suspects.

In addition, Sudan continues to harbor Usama Bin Ladin, a major financier of terrorism, and members of some of the world's most violent groups like the IG, ANO, Lebanese Hizballah, and HAMAS. Khartoum is a major transit point and base for a number of terrorist groups. There is no evidence that Syrian officials have been directly involved in planning or executing terrorist attacks since 1986. Nevertheless, Syria continues to provide safe haven and support -- inside Syria and in areas of Lebanon under Syrian control -- for terrorist groups such as Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GC, HAMAS, Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Japanese Red Army, and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Syria has permitted Iranian resupply of Hizballah via Damascus but continues to restrain the international activities of some of these groups.