The 2026 Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community determines: “…. Iran has proven capable of developing lethal operations against Americans at home and abroad, and probably will attempt to pursue such efforts again if the current [regime] remains in power, and is able to rebuild….
Threat Assessment
Iran poses a threat to U.S. networks and critical infrastructure in the form of cyber espionage and cyber attacks…. China, Russia, and Iran are seeking to sustain economic, political, and military engagement with Latin America that may conflict with U.S. interests in the region…. Selective cooperation among China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea… is bolstering the threat that each of them poses to the U.S…..”
* According to the West Point Center for Combatting Terrorism: “Iran sees terrorism as an extension of foreign policy…. The primary pathways available to Iran in the US include deploying Iranian agents, criminal surrogates, terrorist proxies, or actively seeking to inspire lone offenders to carry out attacks within the homeland…. Iran and its proxies have spent years investing in a ‘homeland option’ here in the United States. In just the past five years, US authorities have disrupted at least 17 Iranian plots in the homeland…. In its 2025 Threat Assessment, the Director of National Intelligence assessed that Iran ‘remains committed to its decade-long effort to develop surrogate networks inside the United States….’ The Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 Threat Assessment [and the FBI] concurred, reporting that ‘we expect Iran to remain the primary sponsor of terrorism and continue its efforts to advance plots against individuals – including current and former US officials – in the US.’ Such plots have been on the rise in recent years…. In early 2024…, a network of [Iranian] individuals targeted Iranian dissidents and opposition activists [in the US] for assassination at the direction of the Iranian regime…. According to the FBI, Hezbollah has maintained a presence in the US since at least 1987.”
