Arab League Removes Hezbollah From Terror List; How Iran Benefits

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington, DC, by the Anti-Defamation League is the largest case against foreign countries in connection with the attack, and the first backed by a Jewish organization, the ADL said in a press release.

Iran’s Islamic government, the main financial and military supporter of Hamas, has openly praised the attack, pledging to continue it backing of the militant group. It has also praised efforts by its proxy groups in the region to support Hamas and attack Israel.

The lawsuit accuses the three countries of providing financial, military and tactical support to Hamas. The US government has designed Iran, Syria and North Korea state sponsors of terrorism.

More than 1,200 people were killed in the attack and 250 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. The plaintiffs in the case include US citizens injured on Oct. 7, as well as relatives and the estates of victims killed in the attack.

"Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of antisemitism and terror – along with Syria and North Korea, they must be held responsible for their roles in the largest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust," ADL Chief Executive Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

Iran already faced several similar lawsuits in connection with the Oct. 7 attack.

The Iran, North Korea and Syria missions to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

It is common for countries accused of state-sponsored terrorism to ignore lawsuits in the US and not to honor judgments against them in US courts.

However, the United States Justice Department has a program called Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund(USVSST Fund), which provides compensation to individuals (or personal representatives of deceased individuals) who hold a final judgment issued by a United States District Court awarding the individual compensatory damages.

So far, the fund has made four distributions to victims from appropriations by the US Congress and collections from unlawful activities by individuals and affiliates of state sponsors of terrorism after successful prosecutions. The Justice Department is planning a $940 million distribution for 2025.

But the fund has run low, prompting several members of Congress to introduce legislation in May that would enhance funding and guarantee annual payments to victims.

If the defendants in this case are found liable, the plaintiffs hope to tap the USVSST, which Congress created in 2015 to compensate individuals who have won judgments against state sponsors of terrorism.

Monday's lawsuit seeks at least $1 billion of compensatory damages and $3 billion of punitive damages.

"While nothing will ever undo the unbearable pain Hamas caused our family or the brutal losses we've suffered, we hope this case will bring some sense of justice," plaintiff Nahar Neta, whose American-born mother Adrienne Neta was killed on Oct. 7, said in a statement.

The law firm of Crowell & Moring also represents the plaintiffs.

With reporting by Reuters

“We are not enemies. We’re allies in the fight against a shared enemy,” said the 28-year-old Natalie Sanandaji.

Hosting a digital rally, Sanandaji declared that the common enemy for both Iranians and Israelis is the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“I survived an Iranian-led attack at the Nova music festival in Israel, which only strengthened my resolve to fight for my fellow Iranians living in fear under the regime,” she said.

She was attending the Re’im music festival on October 7 when Hamas launched attacks. Out of the nearly 1,200 people killed that day, at least 364 were young partygoers at the festival.

Hearing gunfire from all directions, she ran for hours, passing by some who were killed on their way trying to escape the carnage. She ran until an Israeli local came to her rescue, according to reports.

Sanandaji was born to an Iranian father and an Israeli mother. Her background, she said, has often led to misconceptions with people.

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“I'm Iranian and Israeli, their automatic reaction was, what's it like to be from two countries that hate each other? What's it like? To have parents from two cultures who hate each other. And I would always have to explain to people. It's not. It's not the people. They don't hate each other.”

On June 23, she hosted the "Voices Against Violence: The Iranian Diaspora Speaks" Digital Rally, organized by the Combat Antisemitism Movement. The event united voices from the Iranian diaspora to address issues of human rights violations by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“It started in Iran, and a lot of people seem to not realize that Hamas is just one of the proxies of the Islamic regime. And it's so it's so important to have that unity, because that's what they want more than anything. They want us to not be unified against all of them. They want us to not realize that they are all one and that we have one common enemy,” said Sanandaji.

On October 26, 2023 Congressman Bill Huizenga, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, held a hearing examining how the Iranian regime moves money to finance terrorism. He stated that Iran funds roughly 93% of Hamas’ budget which is about $350 million dollars per year.

In 2018, the US State Department report stated that Iran funds Hezbollah with around $700 million annual and gives $100 million a year to groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Iran International, Iran uses its proxies like Hamas to avoid the prospects for a direct and over confrontation.

“Proxy forces function as low cost auxiliaries for the Islamic Republic, allowing the regime in Tehran to conserve resources and personnel by fighting on the cheap and using local actors as shock troops and terrorist forces,” said Taleblu.

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The lineup of the digital rally speakers, including activists, scholars, and community leaders, expressed that at the acts of violence committed in Iran against its own people and through its proxies abroad like in Israel, are the same.

Marjan Keypour, a human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran, implored the West, specifically feminists to condemn the atrocities of the Iranian regime.

“I'm speaking specifically to the feminists around the world, especially in the Western countries, who have time and again ignored the atrocities that are committed by the Iranian regime and their perpetrators across the world. For them to speak out with the same vehemence and with the same level of condemnation against the violence that is taking place inside Iran and against the violence that took place on October 7th by the Iranian regime proxies. We cannot forgive. We cannot forgive. We cannot ignore,” she said.

Jonathan Harounoff, an Israeli-Iranian expert and journalist, said the "bond between Israelis and Iranians is one of the most misunderstood dynamics in this entire conflict."

Harounoff said the reason there's a strong bond is because they share the same "source" of "suffering" and share a "the same sort of lived experiences."

"Iranian people, they've been suffering for decades and decade from the Islamic Republic. Israelis and Jewish people worldwide have have suffered at the hands of the Islamic Republic, whether directly or, through its, very vast proxy network," he said.

Another featured speaker, Sarah Raviani, a visiting fellow with the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI), drew parallels between the death of Mahsa Amini, which she said created a “revolution in all of our hearts" and the victims of October 7.

Amini was killed in Sept 2022 after being taken into police custody for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. Her death sparked the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement in Iran, and became a rallying cry for change.

Raviani said when the movement broke out, “for all of 2022 and 2023, the Israeli and Jewish community were basically our only allies.”

She said when October 7 took place she felt like all of her advocacy against the Islamic Republic had “fallen on deaf ears.”

“I woke up that morning very, very early. It was around 5 a.m. and for around an hour I sat on social media as I watched videos of Hamas hunting down Israelis, and I remember calling my mom. I was at my parent's house, and I called my mom over to my bedroom, and I just had her lay down with me, and we were crying and just in shock because, you know, we had been advocating for so long and trying to educate lawmakers on the dangers of the Islamic Republic” she said.

Harounoff said the perpetrators behind the attacks in Israel and against Iranian people inside Iran have the same roots - the Islamic Republic.

The FDD’s Behnam Ben Taleblu said Iran is trying to export its revolution and Islamist, authoritarian agenda abroad through its proxies. That agenda, he said, is not supported by a vast majority of Iranians.

“This is an agenda that has no social base or resonance at home and is increasingly contested by the vast majority of Iranian society which has been protesting against the regime in its entirety.”

American-Israeli expert and journalist Emily Schrader, one of the panelists, said it’s her mission to educate people on the solidarity felt by many Iranians and Israelis. It’s a unity that she believes most of the Western world doesn’t understand.

“I think that one of the most important things that we can do is to show the world that there is this solidarity and to show the world that we do have this common goal of fighting against an Islamist terrorist organization, which is the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with all of its proxies, whether it's the IRGC, the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Hamas.”

She organized the Woman-Life-Freedom protests in Israel and helped bring murals supports the people of Iran to the streets of Israel.

Schrader described the bond between Iranians and Israeli’s as historic.

“We always loved each other. I mean, speaking historically, of course, from the time of Cyrus the Great, there's a true allyship between the Jewish people and the Iranian people.”

Israel-Iran expert Jonathan Harounoff agrees. He pointed to the fact that around the world, some Israelis have shown up to anti-regime protests organized by Iranians and that some Iranians have also supported Pro-Israel demonstrations.

"You'll see flags from both present. You'll see people who are, waving flags side by side into it. To an outside observer, that seems like a crazy thing. How is that what is going on? But it's it actually makes a lot of sense that people who are building this bond not just by suffering, but also mutual understanding where Iranians understand where Israelis are coming from, and Israelis also understand where Iranian people are coming from."

"The Americans wrote a letter, and the Zionist regime relayed a message through Turkey, urging us to keep the retaliatory strike restrained. They pleaded for a measured response," stated the IRGC commander on Thursday.

He also asserted that foreign ministers from "France and several European nations" contacted Iran's foreign ministry, initially expressing concerns but ultimately accepting the operation's legitimacy.

“Their [the Europeans] primary contention afterward was that 'the operation was meant to be punitive; if this is mild, what would a full-scale military operation entail?'" he said.

In addition to diplomatic exchanges with Western nations, Hajizadeh claimed that neighboring Arab countries intervened through their foreign ministers to propose a ceasefire in Gaza to dissuade the Islamic Republic from attacking Israel.

Described as "Operation True Promise" by Tehran, the April 13 massive air strike employing over 350 drones and missiles marked Iran's first direct assault on Israeli territory. According to the Israeli military, 99% of the projectiles were intercepted with the assistance of a coalition led by the US.

The attack was a response to what Iran claimed was an Israeli attack on its consulate in Damascus, which resulted in the death of seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including a senior commander.

This is not the first time the IRGC commander has made such claims, but it is the first time he has mentioned Turkey as an intermediary.

"Following the Supreme Leader's address, the Zionists recognized Iran's resolute stance. Consequently, they appealed through neighboring countries, urging us to respond with restraint," he stated last week.

Last month, Hajizadeh asserted that the aerial assault on Israel employed limited military capabilities, explaining, “We had to use a great number of missiles and drones to get through Israel's Iron Dome; we used 20% of our military capability in the operation.'"

Hajizadeh also alleged that Israel offered concessions in Gaza to preempt Iranian retaliation despite its ongoing offensive against the Gaza Strip.

"Israel conveyed messages through Egypt's foreign minister, indicating readiness to negotiate in the Gaza conflict to avoid Iranian reprisal," claimed Amirali Hajizadeh.

However, these claims, reported by Iran's state media, appear dubious as Israel has continued to escalate operations in Rafah, Hamas's southern stronghold, despite warnings from a host of countries, including the US and European nations. Israel's primary objectives remain the elimination of Hamas and the release of the remaining 120 hostages held in Gaza.

“It was determined the UAVs and the ground control station presented an imminent threat to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region,” CENTCOM statement published on X read.

“This continued malign and reckless behavior by the Iranian-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” it added.

Since mid-November, the Houthis, acting as an Iranian proxy group, initiated targeting maritime commercial traffic, prompted by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's call for Muslim nations to blockade Israel. Initially concentrated in the Red Sea, these assaults have expanded to vital waterways such as the Indian Ocean.

Despite repeated US and UK airstrikes on Houthi military installations since January, the Iran-backed faction has intensified its attacks in recent weeks, coinciding with ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza and strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

The Houthi campaign has severely disrupted global shipping, compelling companies to redirect through longer and costlier routes around southern Africa. Moreover, it has sparked concerns about the potential spread of the Gaza conflict.

“Albeit Iran deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon, should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue,” the statement published on the official X account of Iran's Permanent Mission to the UN stated. “All options, including the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.”

The "Resistance Front" refers to an alliance of armed militant groups backed by Iran, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi Shiite militias. Founded in 1982 by Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), Hezbollah is a key player in the Tehran-supported alliance hostile to Israel and the United States.

Iran’s statement comes amid rising concerns of an escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. Alongside the ongoing Gaza clashes, the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah group has been exchanging fire with Israel for over eight months.

On Thursday, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, underscored the group's reliance on Iran, stating that the fate of the "Resistance Front" is linked to its main supporter, the Islamic Republic of Iran. "The future of the region hinges on the developments of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Hassan Nasrallah said.