Ten Islamic Republic Men Face Deportation From Canada

A marked increase in attacks by Iran-backed Houthis has been met by no US retaliation, leaving many lawmakers and officials in Washington confused and dismayed.

“We need to start holding them responsible,” Senator Thom Tillis told Iran International’s Arash Aalaei on Wednesday afternoon. “I think the administration needs to take a firmer stance because we all know that this is aided and abetted by Iran.”

In the past few days, two US destroyers, Carney and Mason, have been forced to engage in military action when they faced missiles and drones launched from territory controlled by Yemeni Houthis.

On Wednesday, the USS Mason intercepted and shot down a drone launched from a Houthi-controlled area. Three days earlier, USS Carney shot down three drones after it received distress calls from vessels that had come under attack from Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.

“Every one of these drones and every one of these missiles that are launched at commercial vehicles are arguably acts of terrorism,” Senator Tillis said.

But the Biden administration seems to be reluctant to act on that basis, stating that it could not be established beyond doubt that the Houthi intended to target American warships.

Senior Biden administration officials are said to be against targeting Houthis for now, according to Politico, even though some military officers are calling for “more forceful responses to the militants’ attacks in the Red Sea.”

President Biden's critics say his lack of action against Iran has enabled and emboldened the regime and its proxies in the region. Many accuse Biden of pursuing a policy of “appeasement” with Tehran.

“The Biden administration has been funneling billions of dollars to the largest sponsor of terror,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson told Iran International’s Arash Alaei Wednesday. “The Biden administration’s weakness has inflamed the world.”

President Biden and his top team have been trying hard to avoid an expansion of the conflict since Hamas forces attacked Israel on 7 October. They seem to be concerned that the regime in Tehran would escalate through its proxies in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, Politico reported.

More specifically, the US government seems to be concerned that targeting Houthis or even re-designating them as a terror group could jeopardize the Yemen peace process and perhaps the recent thaw between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Many in Washington see emboldened attacks by Houthis as a direct result of the White House's decision to remove the group from the US terrorism blacklist in the first days of the Biden administration.

“The despicable acts of terrorism in the Red Sea show the recklessness of President Biden’s decision to de-list the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization when he took office,” said Senator Roger Wicker, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“It is time to deliver a punishing, forceful response to Iran’s proxies throughout the region and re-list the Houthis,” he told the Daily Caller.

Since the beginning of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, the Houthis have attacked several vessels in the Red Sea and launched drones and missiles towards Israel. But they had avoided direct conflict with the Americans – until last weekend.

This week’s incidents forcing US warships to engage has raised the stakes. Pointing out the failure of the current strategy to deter Iran and its proxies, the Republicans in the Congress are calling on the administration to react with more force.

With no clear end to the conflict in sight, it seems certain that foreign policy, in general, and the relationship with Iran, in particular, would become a hotly contested issue in the next year’s Presidential election.

“You know what WILL send Iran a message of deterrence,” asked Senator Roger Marshall on X, “firing Joe Biden in 11 months.”

Referring to Iran’s military assistance to Russia and to extremist militant groups in the Middle East, Kirby warned that the burgeoning relationship between Tehran and Moscow “is not only not good for the Ukrainian people but it’s certainly not good for the region.”

If the Iranian regime avails itself of Russian military capabilities, it can become “more lethal and more dangerous to its neighbors,” he added against the backdrop of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Russia on Thursday.

According to Kirby, the US Department of Treasury has sanctioned nine entities and five individuals who facilitated Moscow’s access to electronics with military applications.

The Department of Commerce has also slapped sanctions against 42 entities around the world for their activities against US interests, especially those engaged in Iran-Russia drone production.

The killings of innocent Ukrainians is partly carried out “through the use of Iranian drones,” Kirby stressed.

Since mid-2022, Iran has reportedly supplied hundreds of kamikaze Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to Russia, which have been extensively used to target civilian infrastructure and cities.

Kirby also pointed to Iran’s backing of its proxy groups in the region, especially Yemen’s Houthis who have time and again attacked US and Israeli interests in the region.

“We know that the Houthis are supported by Iran, not just politically and philosophically but, of course, with weapon systems,” he pointed out.

Though the Islamic Republic has avoided any direct involvement in the Israel-Hamas conflict, the regime has used its allies such as Houthis and Hezbollah to attack Israel and American targets.

As reported by Global News, officials in Canada have initiated proceedings against Salman Samani, 42, who is the subject of sanctions imposed a year ago against members of Iran's hardline regime.

Samani held the position of Iran's deputy minister of interior during Hassan Rouhani's term as president.

The Canada Border Services Agency has formally urged the Immigration and Refugee Board to conduct a hearing for Samani, potentially resulting in his expulsion from the country. Anna Pape, spokesperson for the Refugee Board, confirmed that Samani's case “was referred for an admissibility hearing on November 10, 2023.”

The deportation is in line with sanctions implemented in November 2022, preventing senior members of the Iranian regime from entering Canada.

The measures were imposed after Iran's morality police killed Mahsa Amini for defying hijab laws. Amini's death garnered international condemnation and became a poignant symbol of resistance against the repression of women under Iran's clerical regime.

In response, Canada classified Iran's government as a regime involved in "terrorism and systematic and gross human rights violations," leading to the effective exclusion of tens of thousands of Iranian officials and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members from entering the country.

Canada severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012 due to concerns related to its pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for terrorist organizations including Hamas.

In a Senate hearing Tuesday, Christopher Wray warned that Section 702 of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is key to US national security and its ability to combat foreign terror.

“When it comes to foreign adversaries like Iran, whose actions across a whole host of threats have grown more brazen… or the People’s Republic of China, which poses a generational threat to our economic and national security, stripping the FBI of its 702 authorities would be a form of unilateral disarmament,” Wray said.

Section 702 of FISA allows intelligence agencies to monitor non-Americans outside the US and collect and analyze their communications, such as emails and text messages.

Calls for changes to Section 702 have emerged in Congress following revelations that the FBI improperly searched the database for exchanges with US citizens, including political protesters, campaign donors, and even members of Congress.

Critics argue that FISA 702 has become a backdoor to investigate Americans without warrants. However, the US government and the intelligence community contend that recent reforms prevent such abuse, and additional red tape would neutralize the tool in the face of foreign threats.

"In the last couple of years Iran has tried to assassinate a former US national security advisor on US soil,” Wray reminded the Senate Judiciary Committee.”[Iran] has tried to kidnap and kill an American journalist in NYC… and for extra credit, has tried to interfere in the last presidential elections. " He was referring to plots to kill former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as retaliation for the targeted killing of IRGC militant mastermind Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, in January 2020.

US officials say Section 702 has been critical to stopping weapons sales to Iran before, and “in 2022 to help the administration target an individual and foreign firm that attempted to circumvent US sanctions on Iran,” according to Politico.

Intelligence agencies had identified what the Iranian regime needed for its advanced weapons program, and then searched for those (including names of components and manufacturers) in the 702 database.

In his Senate hearing Tuesday, the FBI director warned again that “allowing 702 to lapse, or amending it in a way that undermines its effectiveness would be akin to laying bricks to rebuild another, pre-9/11-style wall.”

Opponents of the 702 say it invades Americans’ privacy, undermines trust, and oversteps constitutional boundaries. Some US lawmakers are proposing changes that would require a warrant to utilize the database for investigating US citizens.

Senator Mike Lee, one of the more vocal critics of Section 702, grilled Wray on potential abuses of the tool.

“When the FBI is allowed to police itself, and need not go to court to get a warrant based on evidence establishing probable cause—like every other law-enforcement agency in America—it abuses its power under FISA,” he later posted on X.

“When Wray insists that a warrant requirement would just be too difficult for FBI to comply with, that isn’t surprising,” Senator Lee said. “It's supposed to be hard for the government to spy on Americans. That's why we have a Constitution.”

It is expected that the Judiciary Committee proposal and a House Intelligence plan are introduced as amendments Wednesday, “moving forward only with the proposal that gathers the most votes,” according to Politico.

Judicial officials also demanded an apology for the killing of the Soleimani in a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020.

Then US president Donald Trump justified the action by saying that Soleimani was actively planning attacks on American diplomats and service members in the region. Trump also claimed the veteran regime commander was already "directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of millions of people”.

Now the 55th Branch of the Legal Court of International Relations of the Tehran Justice Department has ruled against the US government and 41 other individuals and entities, ordering them to pay a sum of $49.77 billion in connection with the killing.

The court also ordered that the US government and the others held responsible for Soleimani’s death should issue a formal apology, with instructions to publish it in a widely circulated newspaper.

The sentence comes after judicial officials had ruled in favor of more than 3,000 plaintiffs who had filed complaints claiming that they had suffered damages as a result of Soleimani’s death.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian previously stated in January that nearly 60 US officials had been blacklisted by Tehran for their involvement in the assassination of Soleimani.

Both Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have repeatedly vowed revenge for the killing of Soleimani.

Since Soleimani’s death, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has been charged with planning to assassinate John Bolton, the former US National Security Advisor, as retaliation for the military commander’s killing. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was also identified as a potential target in the same plot.

Qassem Soleimani played a crucial role in Iran's external military and intelligence operations, overseeing support and organization of militant proxy forces, including Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militia groups engaged in hostilities against US forces in the region.