Iran is still plotting assassination attempts against officials from the first Trump administration involved in the killing of Quds Force head Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a senior FBI official cautioned on Thursday.

The warning came from FBI operations director Michael Glasheen, who testified before the House Homeland Security Committee during a hearing on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland.” Glasheen was appearing before the panel on behalf of FBI Director Kash Patel, who was unable to attend Thursday’s hearing. 

“Iran continues to plot attacks against former government officials in retaliation for the January 2020 death Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, Commander Qassem Soleimani,” Glasheen said. “They also have continued to provide support to their proxies and terrorist organizations throughout the world, such as Lebanese Hezbollah.”

The Justice Department charged several individuals last November in a thwarted murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Iran against Trump ahead of the presidential election. U.S. authorities have also accused Iran of plotting assassination attempts against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Advisor John Bolton for their involvement in the 2020 strike that killed Soleimani.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent appeared alongside Glasheen at Thursday’s hearing, during which Kent warned of ISIS, Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations taking inspiration from Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. 

“Honestly, the attacks of Oct. 7, the decentralized and just barbaric nature of that, is the new terrorist playbook,” Kent said. “They’re not looking necessarily for a spectacular attack like we had on 9/11, but targets of opportunity, like we tragically saw with the terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., these smaller cells or even individual operatives taking action. That’s what has us very concerned, combined with just the sheer volume of threats.”

Kent was responding to a question from Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), who asked what tactics and techniques were being used by terrorist organizations that the U.S. should be on guard for from individuals in the U.S. illegally with ties to those groups.

The NCTC director also revealed that the agency has identified over 2,000 Afghans and 16,000 other individuals with ties to terrorist organizations, including ISIS and Al-Qaida, who entered the U.S. illegally during the Biden administration. The Trump administration began reassessing all visas from 19 Muslim majority countries in response to the fatal shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington earlier this month, allegedly perpetrated by an Afghan national. 

“Right now, we’re in the triage phase. We’ve already identified 18,000 individuals who have ties to known, suspected terrorists and terrorist organizations, so we’re starting with them, working with DHS and the FBI to locate and deport them,” Kent told Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC). “But, as you pointed out, it is a much bigger problem. We’ve had 2-2.7 million folks from Muslim countries, Muslim regions, that have come into the country under Biden with minimum to no vetting.”

“Any of those individuals who were vetted, such as the terrorist in D.C., they were vetted under a war zone standard to see if they could serve as a soldier or as a guard or a cook or something like that, to see if they pose a threat to us tactically in Afghanistan or Iraq, but not to be our neighbors,” he continued. “Two completely different systems of vetting. The Biden administration used the tactical vetting as a ruse to get millions of people into the country.”

Kent then warned that individuals already in the U.S. cannot be vetted after being granted asylum, and argued that all illegal entrants or visa holders who received expedited approval must be deported for national security purposes. 

“What I would like to emphasize to this committee and to the American people is that we simply cannot go back and retroactively vet these millions of folks who came in under Joe Biden. We have to locate them, and we have to deport them as soon as we possibly can,” Kent said. “Those who want to reapply, they can have the opportunity to reapply. In terms of what we need, we just need the longitude to do our jobs.”

A new bipartisan and bicameral bill is pushing for greater accountability and transparency on China’s violations of U.S. oil sanctions on Iran.

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil, in spite of the sweeping U.S. sanctions regime targeting the Iranian oil and gas industry, as well as newer sanctions that target importers of that oil, which have been recently applied to some firms in China. 

Recent reports by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have found that Iran oil exports, primarily to China, have remained near their peak level in spite of U.S. sanctions, which FDD has attributed to a “failure of U.S. sanctions enforcement.”

The new bill, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Ben Cline (R-VA), requires the administration, within a year of the bill’s passage, to determine whether the People’s Republic of China is conducting sanctionable activities with regard to Iran.

In advance of that determination, the bill requires the administration to report to Congress within 180 days on China’s purchases of Iranian oil, including how China is using shell companies and other methods to dodge sanctions, as well as on Chinese efforts to sell or transfer chemical precursors to Iran to support its ballistic missile program.

Recent reports have found that Iran has been importing materials from China to rebuild its ballistic missile program, an effort that has prompted concern on Capitol Hill.

“China’s growing purchases of Iranian oil and its support for Iran’s ballistic missile program are not just violations of U.S. sanctions—they are direct threats to regional stability and to our allies,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement, adding that the legislation “gives Congress the intelligence and transparency needed to expose how the PRC enables Iran’s most dangerous activities.”

“By bringing these transactions into the light, we strengthen our ability to enforce sanctions and hold malign actors accountable,” Krishnamoorthi continued.

Krishnamoorthi is mounting a bid for the U.S. Senate in his home state.

“China’s continued purchases of Iranian oil and its role in enabling Iran’s missile program to pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and to the stability of our allies in the Middle East,” Cline said. He called the legislation and the reporting it requires “a necessary step toward exposing how the PRC uses shell companies, transshipment schemes, and other avenues to evade sanctions.” 

“This report will give Congress and the Treasury Department the insight needed to strengthen enforcement, close loopholes, and ensure that hostile regimes, and those who bankroll them, are held accountable,” Cline continued.

Blumenthal said that China’s purchases of oil are “providing significant financial support for Iran’s terrorist activities in the Middle East and beyond.”

“Transparency is the first step towards accountability, which is why our bill would require a full report on China’s oil and ballistic missile-related transactions with Iran. This information will support robust sanctions enforcement and provide a path forward for additional legislative action,” Blumenthal said.

Graham called the bill “the first step in fully understanding how China and other nations prop up the Ayatollah’s war machine.”

Walk into any think tank in Washington and you’re likely to bump into more than a few so-called “Iran watchers”: researchers whose job is to try to interpret the actions of the often-opaque Iranian regime and help policymakers figure out how to approach the Islamic Republic. 

Given the adversarial relationship between Washington and Tehran, making sense of the two nations’ policy choices toward each other is big business. But according to some Iranians, something is missing. 

“Most of the people who are working on Iran, they have never been to Iran. Americans, I mean. That brings with itself certain limitations,” said Mehdi Parpanchi, who was born in Iran but now lives in Washington. The U.S. does not have a diplomatic presence in Iran, and vice versa. “In my opinion, the image of Iran is not being seen properly from outside the country.” 

Parpanchi is the director of U.S. news at Iran International, one of the biggest independent Persian-language news outlets in the world. Based in London, Iran International broadcasts inside of Iran via satellite — much to the chagrin of Iranian officials, who have called the network a terrorist organization. It also reaches Iranians expats and dissidents around the world. While the network mainly operates with the goal of offering independent news from an anti-regime perspective to the global Iranian diaspora, Iran International also serves as a crucial source to Iran watchers of all stripes, including those who have never set foot in the country. 

“There is always a decade of delay between the reality inside Iran and how it is being seen from the West, especially from the U.S.,” Parpanchi, who moved to Washington in 2020 to launch a U.S. headquarters for Iran International, told Jewish Insider last month. 

A new show from Iran International, filmed in Washington and broadcast around the world, aims to at least partly remedy that problem. “Iran International Insight,” which launched in June, pledges to put Iran International viewers who live in Iran in conversation with the political figures and diplomats across the world whose policy choices will affect their lives. 

“The concept was that there’s a tremendous opportunity for policymakers and experts in D.C., but especially policymakers, to be engaging with and taking questions from the Iranian people directly,” said Aaron Lobel, a co-producer of the new show and the founder and president of America Abroad Media, an international media organization.

The growth of Iran International’s programming in Washington comes after the Trump administration slashed funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which supports independent outlets such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFERL) and Middle East Broadcasting Networks that air pro-democracy content around the world. Parpanchi previously spent two years at RFERL, which has a Persian-language branch. 

Iran International is not expressly trying to fill that niche, and the new program was in the works starting in 2024, before Trump even came to office. Regardless, the new program arrives at a time that America has pulled back from cultural diplomacy. 

“This is in the best traditions of the United States. It advances American values and it advances American interests,” said Lobel. “The more credible media organizations outside Iran that are trying to reach the Iranian people with information and to give them some sense of hope as well — the more the better.” 

So far, three interviews — hourlong conversations between one or two guests and an Iran International anchor — have been filmed, all in front of a live audience, including many Iranians who live and work in Washington. Iran International’s producers and journalists solicit questions from the network’s viewers in Iran. The interviews take place in English, but they are dubbed in Persian before being aired.

“I’ve met with groups of Iranian diaspora, who have family in Iran and who are activists with them. But I don’t think I received online questions like that,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, who was the first guest, told JI. “That was the primary agenda, to speak to the people.” 

Leiter’s interview with Iran International was a journalistic gold mine for the network: scheduled in advance, it happened to come at a particularly timely moment, hours after President Donald Trump announced a cease-fire between Israel and Iran at the end of the countries’ 12-day war in June. Leiter touted Israel’s military victories in its campaign to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Yet many Iranians wondered why Israel would attack Iran, but ultimately not seek to remove the ayatollah from power. (Hundreds of questions were submitted.)

“One of the themes that came out that was so striking was, of course, many Iranians wanted Israel to continue the campaign, and they were, I think it’s fair to say, you could hear in that show, disappointed that Israel stopped the war. Or to put it differently, they were upset that the Israeli government had, in their view, raised their expectations of ‘regime change’ and then failed to deliver,” said Lobel. 

Leiter offered unusually candid responses to those questions, going beyond the diplomatic language that would’ve gotten the job done even if leaving viewers unsatisfied. 

“I appreciated the opportunity to explain why we weren’t going to go further and actually topple the regime by force,” Leiter explained. “I understand them. Remember when the chancellor of Germany said that Israel is doing the ‘dirty work’ for the world? I guess that the people wanted us to do the work completely for the world. But we can’t do that. And it was important for me to be able to explain that.”

Two other programs were recorded this fall. One featured Elliott Abrams, who served as Iran envoy in Trump’s first term, and Dennis Ross, a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy who previously held several high-level jobs at the State Department in Democratic and Republican administrations. Another featured former CIA official Norman Roule and Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Iran International’s main Instagram account has 16 million followers, and video clips from the Roule-Dubowitz event got about 1 million views each.

Those four experts have different ideological backgrounds, but each falls closer to the hawkish end of the spectrum on Iran. So does Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who was scheduled to appear in an interview in September before the congressional schedule led Cotton to cancel. (Parpanchi said they hope to reschedule.) 

Parpanchi said Iran International aims to include a broad range of perspectives from Washington, noting that the program is only just beginning. 

“It’s not only hawkish. There are other people who have different views about Iran, and we will reflect them all,” Parpanchi said. Iran International plans to ramp up to a more regular filming schedule in 2026.  

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, an anti-Israel think tank in Washington that has pushed sympathetic positions on Iran, is sponsoring a panel discussion at the Doha Forum in the Qatari capital on Saturday — further underscoring how the two-day conference is including a range of extreme voices amid more centrist and mainstream figures.

The panel, billed as “Iran and the Changing Regional Security Environment,” will prominently feature former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has used antisemitic rhetoric and was called the “propaganda arm” of the Iranian regime by officials in the first Trump administration, in a talk with Trita Parsi, executive vice president of Quincy and the founder of the National Iranian American Council, a pro-Iran lobbying group. 

Parsi, a fierce detractor of Israel, has previously faced accusations of operating as an undisclosed foreign agent for the Islamic Republic, which he has denied.

“On June 13, 2025, Israel initiated a war against Iran that lasted twelve days and that also brought the U.S. into direct confrontation with Iran for the first time,” reads a blurb describing the discussion. “This unprecedented event shattered the regional balance and compelled nations to rethink their security strategies. This session will examine the current state of regional affairs, assess its impact on diplomatic and security alignments, and explore potential pathways toward de-escalation and stability.”

The seemingly neutral tone of the summary is belied by omissions such as Iran’s sponsorship of regional terror proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, among other rhetorical elisions that more broadly highlight Qatar’s own carefully managed approach to diplomatic engagement — which critics have cast as a two-faced effort to play both sides of opposing parties.

To that end, the oil-rich Gulf state, a major U.S. ally that has drawn scrutiny for hosting Hamas leaders and for its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, has attracted a wide assortment of speakers and partners to its annual forum in Doha, touted as a “global platform for dialogue” relating to “critical challenges facing our world.”

Its stated theme this year, according to a press release, is “Justice in Action: Beyond Promises to Progress.”

“As a convener of diverse voices, Doha Forum stands as a leading platform to explore how diplomacy, development, and humanitarian action can intersect to deliver measurable, inclusive progress,” Mubarak Ajlan Al-Kuwari, the event’s executive director, said in an announcement on Thursday.

In addition to Iran-friendly groups and figures like Parsi and the International Crisis Group, formerly led by Rob Malley — the controversial Iran envoy in the Biden administration — the summit is elevating figures who have embraced hostile views on Israel or promoted antisemic tropes. Most notably, Tucker Carlson, who has invited several antisemites to join his podcast for friendly or credulous interviews, will sit for a conversation on Sunday with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

At the same time, the Gulf confab, which extends through the weekend, is also featuring a variety of establishment-oriented participants, obscuring the extremism and fringe positions of other guests set to receive equal or even more prominent billing at the event. 

Alongside Carlson, the forum, co-sponsored by CNN, the Atlantic Council and other mainstream institutions, includes a more traditional roster of speakers such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, philanthropist Bill Gates and several world leaders.

President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, dealing a significant blow to the Islamic Republic’s weapons program, is viewed favorably by 60% of Americans, according to a newly released survey commissioned by the Ronald Reagan Institute.  

The decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear program was one of the most popular policies the Pentagon has made in Trump’s second term, according to the survey. Of the 10 policies tested, only two (using force against drug traffickers in Latin America and issuing gender-neutral standards for combat roles) had a higher net approval rating.

Despite the widespread support for the airstrikes, there is a partisan divide in support. Republicans overwhelmingly supported the military action, while 39% of Democrats did so. 

The survey also painted a mixed picture about the state of U.S.-Israel relations, finding that two-thirds of Americans consider Israel to be an ally, including 57% of Democrats. The share of respondents calling Israel an ally is down six points from the institute’s survey last year. When it comes to sending weapons to Israel, half of respondents were supportive — with a 68% supermajority of Republicans, but just 35% of Democrats. 

If Hamas refuses to demilitarize Gaza, however, 54% of Americans would favor further Israeli military action, including 42% of Democratic voters.

“Overall, the American people know who is the ally and who the adversary is in the Middle East,” Roger Zakheim, the director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, told Jewish Insider. “Even after the impact of Israel’s lengthy war against Hamas in Gaza, you still have close to a supermajority [in the U.S.] viewing Israel as a strong ally, which is reassuring for Jerusalem.”

The findings are part of a wide-ranging examination of American public opinion on national security issues, indicating a consistent American preference to maintain engagement in the world. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said the “it is better for the United States to be more engaged” in international affairs, with just 33% disagreeing. 

Notably, support for the U.S. sending weapons to Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian attacks wins widespread support, with 64% in favor — a nine-point jump from last year’s survey. Ukraine is also viewed as an ally by three-fourths of respondents. Only 17% said they thought Russia was an ally, while 79% viewed the country as an enemy.  

When asked which country poses the greatest threat to the U.S., China held a sizable lead, with nearly half of respondents naming Beijing, while 26% ranked Russia at the top. Only 3% said Iran posed the greatest threat.

The poll of 2,507 adults was conducted jointly by Beacon Research, a Democratic firm, and Shaw & Company Research, a Republican firm, between Oct. 23-Nov. 3. The two polling firms also conduct Fox News’ polling. 

It was released in the run-up to this year’s Reagan Defense Forum, which is being held this Friday and Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.

Israel’s Iron Beam system, which intercepts missiles with lasers, will be delivered to the IDF for initial operational use at the end of the month, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Daniel Gold, head of the Israeli Ministry of Defense Research and Development Directorate, said at the International DefenseTech Summit at Tel Aviv University on Monday. 

“With development complete and a comprehensive testing program that has validated the system’s capabilities, we are prepared to deliver initial operational capability to the IDF on Dec. 30, 2025. Simultaneously, we are already advancing the next-generation systems,” Gold said.

According to Gold, “the Iron Beam laser system is expected to fundamentally change the rules of engagement on the battlefield.”

Former Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which developed and produced the Iron Beam system, told the Misgav Mideast Horizons Podcast in an episode to be released Wednesday that the new missile defense system represents a “laser revolution.” (Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov co-hosts the podcast.)

“For the first time in human history, we are able to shoot down missiles, rockets, even artillery shells, mortar shells, cruise missiles, airplanes as well — not with projectiles, not with missiles or artillery shells, but with light,” Steinitz said. 

According to Steinitz, American, Chinese, British, German and Russian companies have tried to develop effective laser weapons for decades. 

“We managed to do it and we already intercepted [projectiles] in tests,” he said, noting that Lite Beam, a smaller version of the Iron Beam system, was successfully used in October 2024 to intercept roughly 50 UAVs shot at Israel by Hezbollah from Lebanon. 

“This is revolutionary, and I am confident that this is just the beginning,” he added.

Iron Beam will initially be used to shoot down short and long-range missiles from Lebanon and Gaza, and the combined use of Iron Beam and the Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems, also produced by Rafael, will bring Israel close to 100% interception, Steinitz said. 

He does not expect Iron Beam to fully replace Iron Dome nor David’s Sling in the coming years, because factors such as poor weather conditions and very large barrages could make the laser systems less effective.

The use of the laser system will also drastically lower the costs of missile defense, Steinitz said, because each use of the Iron Beam system costs around $3, as opposed to about $50,000 per Iron Dome interceptor. As such, it will cost less for Israel to intercept a rocket than it costs for its enemies to produce them, at $5,000-10,000.

In addition, Steinitz said that the Iron Beam system works faster than the Iron Dome.

“Once the [rocket] is rising over Gaza, interception will start immediately, because the laser can reach the incoming rocket at the speed of light,” he said. “With the Iron Dome, it’s two missiles flying, one from Gaza and one from Tel Aviv to meet each other midway.” 

Shooting down rockets over Gaza will also mitigate the need for Israelis to run to shelters and safe rooms due to falling missile and interceptor fragments.

“We won’t sound the alarm in Tel Aviv, because we should be able to see [an interception] immediately if we succeed to intercept, and if we fail to intercept, we will have another opportunity, and then we shall put on the alarm,” Steinitz explained.

Steinitz also said that in the coming years, Rafael is likely to develop laser-based systems to intercept longer range missiles, such as those shot at Israel by the Houthis from Yemen and by Iran in the last two years.

A series of recent events and revelations has raised concerns that Iran could be working to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program damaged during the 12-day war with Israel and the U.S., and that Russia could be playing a role in aiding the effort.

Iran withdrew last week from an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow the watchdog to inspect its nuclear sites, just after the U.N. agency’s board of governors passed a resolution calling on Iran to provide more complete information about its nuclear sites and remaining stock of enriched uranium. The resolution came as the IAEA’s chief, Rafael Grossi, said that there were indications of activity at some Iranian nuclear sites. 

Also last week, the Financial Times reported that Iranian scientists and nuclear experts visited Russian military research institutes a second time last year. The trip was organized by a front group for Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, which is behind the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons research. The extent of cooperation between the countries, however, is still unknown. 

Those developments come on the heels of a $25 billion deal between Russia and Iran, finalized in September, for the former to build nuclear power plants for the latter.

Jonathan Ruhe, fellow for American strategy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Jewish Insider that the FT’s reporting fits with Western intelligence findings from before the Israeli and American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites that the Islamic Republic was trying to reduce the time it would take to turn its enriched uranium into a bomb.

“These activities focused on simulating a nuclear explosion, without actually detonating a test device. Israel’s growing urgency about Iran’s progress contributed to its decision to launch the 12-day war when it did,” he said.

Arkady Mil-Man, head of the Russia program at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told JI that there is “no doubt Iran is trying to rehabilitate its capabilities – nuclear and missile – and Russia is its strategic partner.” 

Earlier this month, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Russia President Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin readout of the phone call said they discussed “the state of affairs surrounding Iran’s nuclear program.” 

Cooperation between Iran and Russia should be of great concern to Israel, Mil-Man said, and expressed hope that Netanyahu said as much to Putin. “It’s an existential threat. Russia is cooperating with Israel’s No. 1 enemy,” Mil-Man said.

Andrea Stricker, deputy director of the nonproliferation and biodefense program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI that “Russia has traditionally limited its assistance on Iran’s nuclear weapons program to applications that have plausible civilian uses, but which can also assist a nuclear weapons program.”

However, she added that “with Tehran’s help during the Ukraine war, it is possible that the Russians are willing to aid in ways that directly help on weaponizing or constructing nuclear devices.”

JINSA’s Ruhe said the Russian visits “suggest an openness to aiding Iran’s weaponization,” and also suggested that Putin’s position may have shifted due to Iran’s support for Russia in the Ukraine war. In addition, he said that in Putin’s view, “the more he could help Iran pull America’s focus away from Europe, perhaps all the better.” 

The Financial Times report did not include specific enough information to know whether the meeting would help Iran with nuclear testing, but Stricker said that media exposure “will help deter Moscow from contemplating more aggressive help for the Tehran regime’s efforts to rebuild or reconstitute the program.”

Sophie Kobzantsev, a research fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, told JI that the partnership between Iran and Russia has its limits. (Lahav Harkov is a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute.)

“Russia always played a double game with Iran,” she said. “They gave them technology, weapons, air defense systems. In the nuclear area, they helped, but Russia was always part of the international organizations that inspected Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Russia wants Iran to be in a situation that it can control. … Putin understands nuclear deterrence, but he does not want things to get out of control. He doesn’t want the regime or the economy to collapse. He needs Iran to be stable enough to be managed,” she added.

Russia’s general approach to Iran’s nuclear program, Ruhe said, “has been to enrich Moscow and give it leverage, without moving Iran closer to a bomb.” 

As such, Russia played a role in building Iran’s reactor in Bushehr, worked on nuclear energy and research with Iran and now seeks to build nuclear power plants.

Iran is increasingly isolated due to the snapback of U.N. sanctions earlier this year, and Putin has indicated that he will try to leverage that isolation, with Russia calling the sanctions invalid, Ruhe said.

Iran doesn’t have many choices other than Russia to help it on the nuclear front, but Russia is motivated by seeking a greater foothold in the Middle East, Kobzantsev explained.

“Russia lost on two major fronts. They were mostly kicked out of Syria, and Iran and Hezbollah [were weakened],” she explained. “The American foothold in the Middle East can be seen everywhere; the Gaza plan, strengthening Iran’s rivals in the Gulf. Russia is mostly absent from the region.” 

Washington also recently took steps to strengthen its ties in Central Asia, what was once a major Russian sphere of influence, including negotiating peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and recent trade agreements with Kazakhstan.

“Iran sits on both of those points, and a significant foothold there would be important for Russia to rebuild its influence in the Middle East and create a counter to the U.S.,” Kobzantsev said. 

A new federal lawsuit filed on behalf of families of victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks accuses the crypto giant Binance of knowingly facilitating the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to U.S.-designated foreign terror organizations on an “industrial scale,” helping contribute to the deadly incursion in Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages.

According to the complaint, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, “deliberately” failed “to monitor inbound funds” to such terror groups as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, ensuring “that terrorists and other criminals could deposit and shuffle enormous sums on the exchange with impunity.”

“Moreover, when specific customers were designated or particular accounts were subject to seizure orders, Binance allowed those customers and accounts to shift the assets into other Binance accounts, thus negating the effect of any ‘blocking’ or ‘seizing’ of the account,” the complaint states.

Such a policy “demonstrates Binance’s deliberate and conscious effort to enable users to operate on the Binance platform and clearly helps facilitate financial crime on an industrial scale,” the filing adds. 

Among the 306 American plaintiffs are the families of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American hostage murdered by Hamas in Gaza; Itay Chen, an Israeli-American IDF soldier whose body was returned to Israel this month; Eyal Waldman, an Israeli philanthropist whose U.S.-born daughter, Danielle, was killed at the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 attacks; and Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.

“The lawsuit details how Binance knowingly facilitated the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars between 2021 and 2023 that helped enable the terrorist organizations responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks,” Gary Osen, an attorney representing the plaintiffs who specializes in civil terror cases, said in a statement to Jewish Insider. “One of our goals is to cast a public spotlight on specific ways in which the Binance platform has been used by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas to finance terrorism.”

The 284-page complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota under the Anti-Terrorism Act, targets Binance as well as its founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, and Guangying Chen, a close associate of Zhao whom the lawsuit identifies as the crypto exchange’s “de facto chief financial officer.”

Zhao and Chen could not be reached for comment regarding the lawsuit.

A Binance spokesperson said the company “cannot comment on any ongoing litigation.” 

“However, as a global crypto exchange, we comply fully with internationally recognized sanctions laws, consistent with other financial institutions. For context, the heads of the U.S.Treasury’s FinCEN and OFAC have confirmed that cryptocurrency is not widely used by Hamas terrorists,” the spokesperson told JI in a statement, referring to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and Office of Foreign Assets Control. “Most importantly, we hope for lasting peace in the region.”

The company’s “conduct was far more serious and pervasive than what the U.S. government disclosed during its 2023 criminal enforcement actions,” the complaint says, claiming that Binance “knowingly sent and received the equivalent of more than $1 billion to and from accounts and wallets controlled by the FTOs responsible for the Oct. 7 attacks.”

That figure, the filing states, vastly outnumbers a previous amount of more than $2,000 in known transactions for Hamas disclosed by the federal government in 2023.

In November 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and agreed to step down from his executive role. He served four months in federal prison and was pardoned last month by President Donald Trump. Binance itself also pleaded guilty to federal charges and paid over $4 billion in fines.

Last May, Binance participated in a $2 billion business deal with World Liberty Financial, a new crypto company founded by the families of Trump and Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy.

“To this day,” the complaint states, “there is no indication that Binance has meaningfully altered its core business model.”

Citing a complex forensic money laundering analysis, the lawsuit identifies a wide range of Binance accounts with alleged terror links and spanning multiple locales, including Venezuela, Gaza, Lebanon and even North Dakota, where an account connected to Hamas was accessed several times from a small city outside Fargo.

The suit refers to Gaza money exchanges, a gold smuggling operation in South America with ties to Hezbollah and a purported Venezuelan livestock entrepreneur allegedly moving millions of dollars for known terror organizations in the Middle East, among other illicit transactions.

“Every tunnel, every missile, every bullet, every attack is paid for by someone,” Izhar Shay, a plaintiff whose son Yaron died defending Kibbutz Kerem Shalom in Israel on Oct. 7, said in a statement shared with JI. “Companies like Binance cannot keep profiting if they enable terrorists to operate in the shadows. This case is about making sure that those who enabled Hamas’ evil are held to account.”

The Treasury Department implemented new sanctions on Thursday targeting what the agency described as a “network of front companies and shipping facilitators that bankroll the Iranian armed forces by selling crude oil” — a critical revenue stream for the regime.

The latest round of sanctions, one of several announced in recent months, also targets six vessels in Iran’s “shadow fleet” of tankers used to transport oil to international markets, joining a list of more than 170 such vessels which have been sanctioned this year.

The Treasury is also adding sanctions on a subsidiary of Mahan Air, an Iranian airline used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to help supply proxies and allies across the region.

“Today’s action continues Treasury’s campaign to cut off funding for the Iranian regime’s development of nuclear weapons and support of terrorist proxies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Disrupting the Iranian regime’s revenue is critical to helping curb its nuclear ambitions.”

In its announcement, the Treasury Department said that Iran’s oil exports are a crucial source of funding for the Iranian regime, particularly as the Islamic Republic seeks to rebuild after its war with Israel.

“Following its defeat in the 12-Day War with Israel, Iran’s military has increasingly come to rely on the sale of Iranian crude oil to supplement its annual budget and finance the rebuilding of its depleted forces,” the statement reads.

The companies targeted under the sanctions are tied to Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars Company, an arm of the Iranian military responsible for oil sales and exports. The companies being targeted operated variously out of the UAE, Panama, Greece, India and Liberia.

The ships in question are flagged in Palau, Panama and Gambia.

According to the Treasury’s announcement, Mahan subsidiary Yazd International Airways Company was used by the IRGC to transport Quds Force officers to Lebanon to support Hezbollah attacks on Israel and to ship weapons to the Assad regime in Syria. 

The sanctions also seek to crack down on Mahan’s procurement of Western aircraft and identify several such aircraft as blocked property.

Bessent also attended a meeting at the White House on Thursday with recently freed hostages.

“We heard their firsthand accounts of the atrocities experienced on that day and over the past two years,” Bessent said on X. “Thanks to President Trump’s historic actions and bold leadership, all of the hostages have been freed, and we are closer than ever to a lasting peace in the Middle East. At @USTreasury, we are committed to safeguarding Americans and our allies from terror, wherever it presents.”

Two Democratic senators expressed concern on Tuesday about the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ seizure of an commercial oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international shipping route.

The IRGC took credit on Friday for the seizure of the Talara, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, for what state media described as alleged cargo violations. The tanker, which began its journey in the United Arab Emirates, was carrying petrochemicals through the Strait of Hormuz to Singapore when it was diverted by the IRGC into Iranian territorial waters.

“It’s like the 1980s all over again,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a former fighter pilot, said. “The first time I was there was 1989, in the Strait of Hormuz, with the Iranians doing that same old shit, where they would harass shipping. A couple times, I felt like we were on the edge of getting in the conflict.” 

“This was 40 years ago. It’s the same playbook with them, over and over and over again, harassing shipping, our planes, our naval vessels,” Kelly continued. “So what’s the solution? Hopefully, I think the solution is: The Iranian people get fed up with this at some point and just force out the ayatollah and his lackeys around there, because it has destroyed their economy.”

Asked if the development should impact the U.S. posture toward Iran, Kelly said it was too soon to determine that. 

“We’ve got to stand on the side of the rule of law. The oil that comes through that Strait is critical to our economy, and we can’t let this become a major problem, but it’s one tanker,” Kelly said.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that the U.S. needs to remain vigilant against Iran’s other malign activities in spite of the setbacks to its nuclear program.

“Iran is Iran. They are the toxic element in the Middle East. We have no reason for complacency. Just because we set them back in their nuclear program, they remain a malevolent force, and the seizure of that tanker is just one indication of that,” Blumenthal said.

Asked if this latest development should be viewed as escalatory given that Tehran targeted commercial shipping, the Connecticut senator replied: “I’m troubled by the lack of an aggressive reaction to it. Maybe it’s just, with the press of everything else that’s going on.”

Former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed a wide range of security challenges facing Israel on Monday, outlining his long-term vision for confronting Iran, expanding regional defense cooperation and managing Gaza’s postwar recovery.

Speaking at a web event hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Knesset member and Blue and White party leader, who served as a minister in Israel’s war cabinet until June 2024, called Iran a “global challenge and threat to the State of Israel” and proposed a five-point plan to ensure Iran’s abandonment of its nuclear ambitions by 2028. 

“Why 2028? It’s an assumption, hopefully not the wrong one,” Gantz added.

Gantz called Iran’s nuclear program “not a private issue.” 

“If America or the international community can come up with an excellent” nuclear agreement with Tehran with “no strategic blinking, fine with me,” Gantz said. “Free inspection, anytime, anywhere, zero warning, zero tolerance for any obstacles that we find, then fine,” he added, referring to Iran permitting inspectors to enter the country and its nuclear facilities, an issue that has held up negotiations in the past.

On Turkey, Gantz said Israel and its allies should encourage Ankara to “reassess” its geopolitical alignment.

“Turkey needs the West. It’s connected to NATO, its economy is highly connected to what’s happening in Europe,” he said. “I think we should try to influence Turkey to reassess where it wants to be, rebalance where it wants to be between the West and the extremism of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Gantz added that Israel should help form a multilateral partnership to strengthen cooperation across the eastern Mediterranean — one that could also engage Turkey constructively.

“Once again, I’m not trying to confront Turkey necessarily,” Gantz said. “I’m moving it from another perspective, with common interest by Greece, Cyprus, ourselves, maybe even Italy, or even other countries in Europe that may want to become part of this consortium … I think the Turks will have much more to benefit from cooperating rather than confronting.”

Gantz also highlighted the importance of working with NATO partners to motivate Turkey to promote stability in Syria. Since the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, Israel and Turkey have often clashed over competing objectives in Syria. 

The Jewish state sees Turkish influence in Syria as a potential security threat and has sought to use military incursions as a way of establishing a demilitarized zone on the border. Turkey has sought to support the new political project in Syria, pursuing deeper political, economic and military cooperation with Damascus.

In April, Israel carried out strikes on multiple cities in Syria, including more than a dozen near a strategic airbase in Hama, where Turkey has reportedly aimed to expand its military footprint. That same month, the two countries held talks to avoid clashes in Syria, reportedly reaching an agreement.

“It’s very important to reconstruct Syria and understand the Turkish involvement,” Gantz said. “We should take advantage of Turkey being part of NATO and the Western world to motivate Turkey to enhance Syria with the access of moderate countries, and not necessarily back to the Iranians.”

Gantz also addressed the security situation in Gaza, where Israel still controls 58% of the territory, marked by a yellow “initial withdrawal line,” something that experts told Jewish Insider earlier could become a permanent marker and serves a security purpose. 

Gantz said he opposes Israeli settlements in the enclave, but supports maintaining a security zone under Israeli control. Gantz proposed that a U.S.-led civil administration should oversee the territory’s reconstruction over the next decade.

“It’s going to be a very chaotic decade right now, when we will have to be strong on defense,” Gantz said. “I think it will take a decade for [Gazans] to be able to rebuild something they can live with and we can live beside.”

In recent days, a chorus of left-wing lawmakers in Congress have ramped up their ire towards the United Arab Emirates, accusing the Gulf country of helping fuel the yearslong civil war in Sudan by reportedly backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the non-Islamist Arab force fighting the Muslim Brotherhood-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). 

The UAE has long denied allegations of involvement in the war. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that, according to sources, recent assessments by the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department’s intelligence bureau purport to show the UAE sending Chinese drones to the RSF. 

On the other side, Iran, Russia, Egypt and Turkey have provided support to the SAF, according to conflict monitors and reporting by Bloomberg and The Washington Post.

The war in Sudan has wrought havoc upon the eastern African nation, with both warring factions committing crimes against humanity. The conflict has killed as many as 150,000 people and has displaced around 12 million. 

Over the more than two-year long conflict, both militias have been accused of widespread sexual assault, mass killings of civilians, torture and deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure. On Monday, the RSF captured the city of El Fasher after an 18-month blockade which saw the group effectively devastate the city, with reports of mass killings, sexual violence and the destruction of hospitals and displacement camps.

The U.S. government, under former President Joe Biden, determined the RSF was committing genocide and found both the RSF and SAF guilty of committing war crimes.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood’s growing influence with the Sudanese Armed Forces has alarmed experts, who warn that the SAF’s deepening ties to Islamist networks threaten regional stability and could pose a risk far beyond the eastern African nation.

“The Muslim Brotherhood has had a strong presence in Sudan since the 1940s and that presence has evolved over the years,” Norman Roule, a former senior U.S. intelligence official, told Jewish Insider. “It’s important to note that this presence is also why Iran is such a strong supporter of the Burhan [head of SAF] government.” 

Liam Karr, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, who has condemned actions on both sides of the conflict, says the ties date back to former Islamist dictator Omar al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan for several decades before the SAF overthrew him in 2019. 

“The SAF is working with several Islamist brigades that consist of former Bashir-era army, police and intelligence personnel,” Karr told JI. “This includes the al Baraa Ibn Malik Brigade, which is widely associated with the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood and Bashir and has an estimated 20,000 fighters.” 

In recent months, the SAF has received explosive attack drones from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to aid in the conflict, while Egypt, one of their key backers, arrested a key Islamist militia leader aligned with the group — signaling that even staunch regional supporters of the group are “growing wary of its Islamist factions,” according to Foundation for Defense of Democracies Research Fellow Hussain Adbul-Hussain. 

Roule said Iran has a vested interest in providing the SAF with weaponry in order to reestablish a presence in the region and revitalize their “broken proxies,” following Israel’s degrading of its military capabilities and of its proxy Hezbollah, as well as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. 

“This is of extreme importance to the U.S. and its partners in the region, because if the Quds Force [IRGC] is able to establish a presence it lost in Syria, it would be able to reestablish training camps it operated a decade ago for Hamas smugglers, routes for weapons that it could send back into Gaza and revitalize Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as provide a transshipment location of weapons to the Houthis,” said Roule. “The Muslim Brotherhood presence in Khartoum is of serious concern for the United States and deserves much greater attention. It is a significant threat to the United States, Israel and the region.” 

Anti-Israel lawmakers, including some of the Jewish state’s most vocal critics in the House, have sounded the alarm on the RSF, but have notably glossed over the SAF and its increasingly Islamist alignment. 

“Sudan is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and a genocide,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) in a post on social media on Tuesday. “The UAE and other arms dealers to the RSF and RSF-aligned militias must be held accountable.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) echoed the same sentiment, saying she is “horrified” by the RSF’s “mass killings of civilians.”

“We must do everything in our power to stop this genocide, including cutting off all weapons sales to the United Arab Emirates who are arming and funding this ethnic cleansing,” said Tlaib on social media on Wednesday.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) followed suit and similarly directed his criticism at the Emirates. 

“I am incredibly concerned about the deepening humanitarian crisis in Sudan, and the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces,” Castro wrote on social media on Wednesday. “The United States must put pressure on the RSF and those who back it — including the United Arab Emirates — to end these atrocities.”

A number of far-left activists online have also singled out the RSF and its reported Emirati ties for condemnation. 

Kenneth Roth, a virulent critic of Israel and former head of Human Rights Watch, posted on Tuesday, “British arms sold to the United Arab Emirates are being found in Sudan, where the UAE is arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as they commit genocide.” 

“Both the Biden and Trump administrations refused to hold the UAE accountable as it armed Sudan’s RSF, despite massacre after massacre, atrocity after atrocity,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, adding, “Members of Congress are showing more responsibility and initiative.” 

House Democrats, led by Reps. Gregory Meeks and Sara Jacobs, released a statement in April marking the two year anniversary of the conflict. “External actors like the UAE must immediately stop fueling the conflict by arming the warring parties,” the statement said notably only listing the UAE and omitting any mention of Turkey, Iran, Russia, and other countries who have sent arms to factions in Sudan.

A bi-partisan group of senators, including Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, released a statement on Thursday breaking in tone from the other lawmakers – condemning both sides and making mention of all nations reportedly backing the war. 

“Both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have committed atrocities against civilians and pursued a zero-sum war at any cost,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “Foreign backers of the RSF and SAF-including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia, Iran, China and governments in the immediate region-have fueled and profited from the conflict and legitimized the monsters destroying Sudan,” the senators continued. 

Secular forces in Sudan have called for the country’s Islamist movement to be classified as a terrorist group, according to Hussain. Sudan’s Civil Democratic Alliance of Revolutionary Forces (Sumud) has stated that the “Islamist movement sees no pathway for ending the fighting other than the complete submission of the Sudanese people to its terrorist regime, an arrangement that has never achieved peace.” 

Karr says the Trump administration and the SAF’s own partners have put “heavy pressure” on the group to “distance itself politically from the Islamist groups.” Karr also believes pressure should be applied to the RSF.

In his second term, President Donald Trump voiced support for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Various members of congress have introduced legislation that would require the secretary of state to use this designation, though Congress has yet to move forward with the legislation. 

Iran’s recent moves to rebuild its ballistic missile program, with materials imported from China in circumvention of international sanctions, are prompting concerns on Capitol Hill, with multiple lawmakers saying that the efforts should be met with a strong response from the United States.

President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, during which he agreed to cut U.S. tariffs on Beijing in exchange for a series of steps by China, including pausing export controls on rare earths and agreeing to a sale of TikTok. Trump also halted the implementation of a measure that would have banned Chinese firms that are partly owned by sanctioned companies from obtaining U.S. technologies.

No measures relating to China and Chinese firms’ continued evasion of Iran sanctions — either in supplying materials to Iran or receiving a majority of Iran’s oil exports — were announced by either side.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said they had not seen the CNN reporting, which cited European intelligence that Iran was importing components of ballistic missile fuel from China, on the issue, but expressed concerns.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said he’s “not surprised” by the news because “we all have to understand that Russia, Iran, China, North Korea — they’re all working together to demolish our way of life.”

He said that he expects that the U.S. and Israel are going to have to take further military action against Iran in the future.

“We’re going to have to demolish the nuclear weapons capability. Until there’s a new leadership in Iran, the same thing is going to happen,” Scott told Jewish Insider. “They’re going to have a bad economy, the people are not going to have any opportunity and every so often, we’re going to have to have to demolish their ability to make nuclear weapons. So elections matter, and I’m glad President Trump is the president so this happens.”

Asked about whether there are ways the U.S. can pressure China to abide by the sanctions, Scott said, “I think we have leverage, but it doesn’t really matter what they agree to because they don’t do it. They lie about everything. I’m very hopeful that President Trump, the trade deal that he’s on, that it works. If you look at history, they never comply with anything.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) also said the report “does not shock me.”

“Communist China is intent on replacing the United States, and they will fund our adversaries, like they’ve been doing with Russia and Iran, to be able to cause us trouble,” Ricketts said. “How should we be responding? We should be responding very harshly to both Iran and Communist China to get them to stop.”

Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said that China assisting Iran in rebuilding its missile program “would be a serious problem” and that he hopes Trump and his team raised the issue in trade talks.

“Rearming a nuclear-ambitious Iran or providing money and materials to a Russia that is  murdering their neighbors is not a way to be able to be a nation that’s actually going to be a world leader,” Lankford said. “If China wants to be a world leader, they need to be able to encourage good behavior for other countries as well.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who has led a series of bills aiming to sanction Chinese entities for their support of Iran, called for the enforcement of existing and new sanctions.

“If reports are true that China is supplying materials to help Iran rebuild its ballistic missile program, it’s an alarming development that threatens U.S. and global security,” Lawler said. “I encourage the administration to act immediately to enforce existing sanctions and impose new ones on any parties involved. History has shown appeasement has only emboldened Iran.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said it would be a “bad idea” for Iran and China to try to rebuild Iran’s missile program.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said that he “would not be surprised” to see Iran trying to rebuild its ballistic missile capacity.

“China’s a bad actor on a lot of fronts, including with the Iranians, so I’m not shocked by that either,” Kelly continued.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that there’s “no reason to think that we have held or quenched [Iran’s] ambition to be a nuclear power.”

“We need to be vigilant and vigorous in countering that threat. I never thought that [Operation] Midnight Hammer ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear capability, because they still have the scientists with the know-how to reconstruct and somewhere under the rubble, there is still equipment,” Blumenthal said, referring to U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June. “So I am not surprised that they are continuing to take steps toward restoring their nuclear capacity, and we need to consider what action is appropriate in response.”

The first congressional hearing on Hezbollah’s malign activities in the Western hemisphere in a decade took place this week, highlighting Venezuela’s embrace of Iran as a geopolitical partner and the Maduro regime’s efforts to transform the country into a regional hub for narcoterrorism. 

The bipartisan Senate International Narcotics Control Caucus convened the hearing, titled “Global Gangsters: Hezbollah’s Latin American Drug Trafficking Operations,” on Tuesday, to explore how Hezbollah’s influence in the region had expanded and determine the most effective ways for the U.S. to respond. Witnesses included Amb. Nathan Sales, who served as the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator in the first Trump administration; Marshall Billingslea, the special envoy for arms control and a former Treasury official during President Donald Trump’s first term; Matthew Levitt, the director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Robert Clifford, a former FBI official who worked in the counterterrorism space.

Senators and counterterrorism experts warned that Venezuela had established itself as the narcoterrorism epicenter of Latin America, and predicted that Hezbollah would deepen financial ties with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as a result. Senators on both sides of the aisle and hearing witnesses urged a hawkish approach to quell Venezuela’s behavior.

“We have long known that Hezbollah is one of Iran’s tools to destabilize and terrorize the Middle East. Until 2023, about 70% of Hezbollah’s finances came from Iran. Hezbollah held up its side of the transaction,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the top Democrat in the caucus, said. “Over the last two years, both Iran and Hezbollah have suffered significant setbacks. Iran is now looking more inward and Hezbollah is cash starved. If we target Hezbollah’s financing, we can deny them the opportunity to rebuild.”

“Where will Hezbollah look for money? Hezbollah has operated in Latin America for almost 50 years, cultivating ties with drug traffickers and developing illicit finance and trade networks. Modern drug cartels and terrorist groups run more like Fortune 500 conglomerates than street gangs,” he continued. “If we want to be serious about fighting the drug traffickers behind American deaths, we must strike their financial networks.”

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH), the newest member of the caucus, asked witnesses for their take on the U.S. potentially declaring Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, to which Billingslea and Sales both responded that the South American country’s behavior met the legal standard.

“Maduro should know his days are numbered,” Moreno, who was born in Colombia, said. 

Sales also suggested that more Latin American countries should “designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. Not just its so-called military wing, all of it.”

“During the first Trump administration, five Latin American countries did exactly that. Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay,” Sales said. “According to a recent RAND study, the Latin American countries that sanctioned Hezbollah during the first [Trump] term have generally seen a drop in activity by the terror group. By contrast, Hezbollah has been more active in the countries in the region that haven’t designated it.”

Levitt noted that narcotics trafficking had become a key source of income for Hezbollah as Iran’s other financing wells dried up. 

“Hezbollah has a long history of turning to its diaspora networks when it’s facing financial stress. Iran is still believed to provide Hezbollah with about the same amount of money today that it did before the Oct. 7 attacks, but that is not enough money to do what it needs to do today. And Iran is having a much harder time getting that money to Hezbollah in a timely manner,” Levitt explained. 

“When Hezbollah is under stress, they traditionally reach out to their illicit financial networks around the world. We can expect that they will do the same today,” he continued. “If you need big money real fast, you turn to illicit activities and especially to narcotics trafficking. Hezbollah has demonstrated its ability to play an important and lucrative, niche role in laundering the proceeds of narcotics trafficking for a wide array of cartels.”

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-OH), in a webinar with Democratic Majority for Israel on Tuesday, emphasized that colleagues who push to block aid to Israel or recognize a Palestinian state risk emboldening Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran when they are on their back foot.

Landsman also laid out what he sees as preconditions for rebuilding Democratic support for the Jewish state.

“Saying, ‘We’re going to withhold aid, we’re going to unilaterally call for a Palestinian state’ — which exists where? Is that all of Israel? What are you talking about? — that suggests to Hamas, ‘Maybe we should keep fighting,’” Landsman said. “I don’t think that’s their intent. I think that it’s entirely appropriate to be critical of the government and decisions … without abandoning our ally.”

“Witholding aid does undermine our ally in a way that is really significant,” Landsman continued.

He said he’s trying to push colleagues in that direction. He added later that he believes that the war in Gaza is a “just war,” even if “it needs to come to an end.”

Asked about the longer-term path toward rebuilding Democratic support for Israel, Landsman said that an end to the war and new leadership in Israel would likely be critical steps in that direction.

“Once we get on the other side of this and we have a government that’s really actively pursuing peace, then the path for a lot of these folks who have felt alienated, to come back. I think is pretty clear,” Landsman said. 

He added that peace must also come alongside continued efforts to beat back threats. “You do have to take out these terror armies, and you have to marginalize and completely sideline Iran as a threat, which is going to require constant work.”

He said he was encouraged to see the deal put forward by the Trump administration on Monday, arguing that the war “needs to end for a whole host of reasons,” including freeing the hostages and surging aid into Gaza.

“Israel’s standing in the international community has been diminished, which is a key strategy for Hamas. And this is one of the reasons why I think Netanyahu has got to figure out a way to end this war, because Hamas is succeeding at delegitimizing Israel in a way that is really harmful, way more so than anything it could do militarily,” Landsman said. “I think you’ve got to take that off the table, and that means ending the war.”

Landsman also said that “there’s still limited pressure on Hamas to end this war” and called on the Trump administration to employ “maximum leverage, maximum pressure” on the group, including by detaining Hamas leaders in Qatar.

He added that surging aid is “the right thing to do, it’s the Jewish thing to do and it’s also just strategically what has to happen if Israel is going to maintain its standing in the world and continue to get support.”

He said that positive steps are being taken but added that there are “serious issues with UNRWA that the U.N. and the international community have not gotten serious about.”

He also emphasized the need for an Arab-nation compact to bring the war to an end and deradicalize and rebuild Gaza with a new government that seeks peace with Israel.

“Get all 22 of them involved in a very formal and committed, long-term, sustainable way,” Landsman said. “I think that helps achieve the goals that we collectively have for ending this war and getting Gaza to a place where Hamas is gone, the strip is deradicalized and we’re in a position to help them rebuild with a new governing authority that wants peace with the state of Israel.”

Landsman suggested that such an effort could also unlock Arab-Israeli peace.

“An Israel that’s seeking peace is quite popular. I think that’s what [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] would support. Once this war is over and there is a pathway to peace because these terror armies have been defeated … I think these folks do come back and say, ‘Okay, let’s be part of something,’” Landsman continued.

He said that the Trump administration needs a larger team, working full-time, on pursuing Middle East peace in the longer term. “You’ve got to get ironclad commitments from all of these countries. It’s got to be formal. They’ve got to come together in a formal, sustainable way.”

Without continuous White House pressure and attention, he warned that any peace that is reached is likely to crumble.

Senators reacted with cautious optimism — and a degree of skepticism — to President Donald Trump’s announcement on Monday of a sweeping deal that would end the war in Gaza, see the release of the remaining hostages and facilitate reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned that the execution of the deal would require close monitoring of Hamas’ compliance and that long-term peace in the region will likely require eliminating Iran’s other proxies, in addition to Hamas.

“I hope Hamas agrees — we’ll get the hostages home. Distrust and verify with these guys,” Graham said. “A lot of loopholes if you don’t watch it, but I hope we can land this deal.”

“When you talk about normalizing the Mideast, I’m all for that. But after Oct. 7, we have to learn one thing: As long as radical Islamic terrorist groups exist, you can’t have a normal Mideast,” Graham continued. “I hope we can land this deal and bring the hostages home and start a new chapter in Gaza and the West Bank, but I will never support normalization until Hezbollah is dealt with. You cannot say the Mideast is a normal place as long as Hezbollah is a threat the way it is today.”

He said that he’s concerned that Hezbollah would replicate Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack if Israel and Saudi Arabia again begin to move toward normalization again before the Lebanese terror group is eliminated.

“If we do the Hamas deal, we should insist that the region deal with Hezbollah and take them both down, then eventually the Houthis,” he continued. “My takeaway of Oct. 7 is if you don’t have these radical groups in a box, you can never really achieve peace.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that there are “some details to be filled in, but I think by and large this seems like a very encouraging development.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) was hesitant to offer an assessment of the deal before Hamas had agreed to the terms.

“It’s the deal that hasn’t happened yet. It’d be nice. I mean, I guess it would be great if we get the hostages back and we get a ceasefire and we get to rebuild Gaza. That all sounds really good. I’m glad that Trump cares about this. It seems optimistic,” he told JI. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) expressed some hesitation about engaging with the Qataris and taking a deal, but suggested Trump was ready to bring the conflict to a close. 

“It’s bold. It’s gutsy on the president’s part. I just will believe it when I see it. I’m just so skeptical of one side in this, getting Qatar in there and involved,” Cramer told JI. “Clearly we’re playing along a little. I don’t know. I just don’t know. I think the timing for Trump is sort of like, ‘Okay, now’s the time [for a ceasefire]. We’ve done the dance long enough.’”

Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) said he’s reviewing the plan, adding that the elimination of Hamas is a necessity.

“You can’t have Hamas promising the destruction of Israel,” he continued. “As long as there’s no threat, I see an opportunity here, but you can’t make a deal with somebody that wants to exterminate you.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jim Risch (R-ID) praised the plan on X. “President Trump again shows his commitment to peace with his plan to bring all the hostages home, end the war in Gaza and transition to a future that allows the Palestinian people to prosper without Hamas’ terror schemes,” Risch said. “Anyone who wants a better future for the Palestinian people should join this pursuit of peace.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Jewish Insider he’s “glad they look like they’re moving toward peace.”

“I don’t think Israel is worried any longer about being popular. I think Israel was worried about its survival, and I respect that. And they’re going to do whatever it takes,” Kennedy continued. “Now, will Hamas accept it? I don’t know. I really don’t know. I hope they do. But if they don’t, I think Israel needs to continue to do what it’s been doing and wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.”

Democrats expressed hope that the deal would bring the war to a close.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told JI, “I’m encouraged the president’s engaging directly and saying this war must end. Humanitarian relief needs to go in, hostages need to come out, there needs to be a plan going forward for Gaza,” but said he hadn’t seen the details of Trump’s announcement.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said that he was not familiar with the specifics of the plan. “If there’s a ceasefire and return of the hostages and humanitarian relief, bravo,” Blumenthal said.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), one of the most vocal critics of Israel’s Gaza operations in the Senate, told JI he hadn’t reviewed the plan but “my main concern [is to] start getting food and medicine in. That has to happen immediately.”

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. “I call on Hamas to accept, and Israel to faithfully implement, the proposal laid out by the United States.”

Prior to the meeting, leading Senate Democrats had urged Trump to press Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a hostage deal that ends the war, as well as to pressure Netanyahu to rule out annexation of the West Bank.

In Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday morning, he painted a picture of a nation abandoned by its allies, who he said had caved to “radical Islamist constituencies and antisemitic mobs” — a message underscored by the backdrop of a mostly empty General Assembly room, following the walkout of dozens of diplomats at the start of his speech. 

Netanyahu began with a victory lap, hailing Israel’s military successes against Hezbollah, Iran and even Hamas over the past year. But much of the speech was defensive in nature, relying on rhetoric he has invoked frequently over the last two years. He articulated the reasons why Israel is still fighting Hamas, despite the fact that Israel “crushed the bulk of Hamas’ terror machine.” And he attacked the U.N. and the countries that he said had shown up for Israel in the days after the Oct. 7 attack but that have since changed course. 

“In the days immediately following Oct. 7, many of them supported Israel. But that support quickly evaporated when Israel did what any self-respecting nation would do in the wake of such a savage attack: We fought back,” he said. 

He defended Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza as moral and appropriate, saying the nation faces “the false of charge of genocide.” 

“The truth has been turned on its head. Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization whose charter calls for the murder of all Jews on the planet. This genocidal organization is given a pass while Israel, which does everything it can to get civilians out of harm’s way, Israel is put in the dark. What a joke,” said Netanyahu. 

Known for his theatrics in his annual U.N. address, Netanyahu wore a large button with a QR code that linked to a website featuring gruesome videos of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel two years ago. He also told the crowd that he had directed the IDF to set up loudspeakers to broadcast his speech out loud on the Gaza border, a measure he said was meant as an attempt to reach Israeli hostages still held in Gaza — and that the remarks were being carried live on the cell phones of Gazans, to convince Hamas to “lay down your arms.”

Netanyahu repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the global war on terror as proof of the depravity Israel is fighting in Gaza.

“Giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem after Oct. 7 is like giving Al-Qaida a state one mile from New York City after Sept. 11. This is sheer madness. It’s insane, and we won’t do it,” said Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister has doubled down in his pledge to never allow the creation a Palestinian state after France, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada unilaterally recognized a Palestinian state this week.

He slammed those nations, saying their move “reward[s] the worst antisemites on earth.” They chose to recognize a Palestinian state, Netanyahu said angrily, even though “nearly 90% of Palestinians supported the attack on Oct. 7 …  just the way they celebrated another horror, 9/11.” 

Netanyahu offered little to those who want to see Israel present a plan for the end of the war and for the governance of Gaza without Hamas, though he said Israeli “victory” would open opportunities for peace in the region. 

“Victory over Hamas will make peace possible with nations throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Our victory would lead to a dramatic extension and expansion of the historic Abraham Accords, which President Trump brokered between Arab leaders and myself five years ago,” said Netanyahu. He did not address whether he would move to annex parts of the West Bank, which Saudi Arabia — Israel’s top target for normalization — said earlier this week would be a “red line,” and that President Donald Trump said yesterday he will not allow. 

He closed with a prayer for a speedy victory, even if Israel has to achieve it alone.

“The rise of Israel did not mean that the attempts to destroy us would end. It meant that we could fight back against those attempts, and that is exactly what Israel has done since Oct. 7,” said Netanyahu. “Two years later, the resolve of Israel and the strength of Israel burn brighter than ever. With God’s help, that strength and that resolve will lead us to a speedy victory into a brilliant future of prosperity and peace.”

Rob Malley, the Biden administration’s Iran envoy, revealed Thursday that the investigation into his alleged mishandling of classified information, which prompted the suspension of his security clearance and his suspension from his post, was closed earlier this year.

“I didn’t know what they were looking at. The claim was that I mishandled classified information. I don’t know what they were referring to. They never told me what they were referring to. I still don’t know what they’re referring to. I may never know what they were referring to or looking at,” Malley said on a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace webinar on Thursday. “I do know that after roughly two years of the situation, the Justice Department notified my lawyers that they had closed the investigation.”

Malley was first suspended around April or May of 2023, which would likely place the end of the investigation — based on the two-year timeline Malley laid out — during the Trump administration.

A State Department inspector general’s report last year found that Malley’s suspension had been mishandled: State Department officials allowed him to temporarily remain in his role as Iran envoy and failed to broadly disclose the fact that he had been suspended, even to his direct supervisor or other top officials.

Congressional Republicans have sought for years to obtain additional information about the investigation, but were consistently refused by State and Justice Department officials. They have alleged Malley transferred classified information to a personal device, which was hacked by a hostile actor.

Discussing Iran talks under the Biden administration with moderator Aaron David Miller, a Carnegie senior fellow, Malley suggested that President Joe Biden was never as interested in or committed to reaching a nuclear deal as President Barack Obama had been, and was unwilling to expend the political capital needed on Capitol Hill or with Israel to make a deal happen.

“When I started off with the Biden administration, I thought President Biden was eager to get back into the deal. That was a misperception on my part. And we took our healthy time to express our interest to the Iranians. And we started off by saying that we wanted a longer, stronger deal,” Malley said. “I think at some point the Biden administration, the team, concluded this is not working, and so we went back to a pure revival of the deal. But by then, perhaps the Iranians had different ideas in mind.”

He said that both Biden and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameinei had been unenthusiastic about reaching a deal and overestimated the other side’s interest in it.

Malley criticized the Biden administration for keeping the Trump administration’s maximum pressure sanctions in place to try to bring Iran to the table after campaigning against those sanctions.

“For President Obama, this was a priority. It was one of his top foreign policy, perhaps even top priority writ large,” Malley said. “I think President Biden never felt that it was that important. He never was in love with the deal. And I think he was not prepared to overcome for a long time the political obstacles that he was facing and the regional obstacles — Israeli opposition in particular.”

He argued that if the Biden administration had been able to “rip the band-aid” and seal a deal early on in Biden’s term, it could have mitigated, if not fully avoided, the political backlash in the midterms and the 2024 election, though he said that he was unsure if the Iranians would have agreed to a deal, given their fear that a future U.S. administration would have again withdrawn.

Malley added that there had been a “real chance” to reach a deal in August 2022, but said that “at that point was clearly [the Iranians’] responsibility” to agree.

He also said that the core premise of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — that Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions relief could be decoupled from Iran’s other malign activities in the region — may have been faulty, given both American and Iranian political considerations.

Asked by Miller if he would have resigned from the Biden administration over its handling of the war in Gaza, had he still been in his position, Malley said he “very much would like to think that I would have resigned.” 

He called the U.S.’ handling of the war “a blemish, a scar that we’re not going to be able to overcome, far worse than Iraq, in my view, because this is a case where we enabled, participated in, fueled, what an increasing number of organizations are calling a genocide.”

TOKYO — As Japan decided against recognizing a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen told Jewish Insider in a wide-ranging interview in Tokyo that he is appreciative of Japan, “an important factor of the international community.” 

On Friday evening, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya called his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, to update him that after weeks of deliberation, Japan decided it will not recognize a Palestinian state at the UNGA. 

“Sa’ar appreciated [the] decision and briefed [Iwaya] about Israel’s actions against Hamas chiefs in Qatar and IDF operations in Gaza,” Cohen told JI. “I join my foreign minister in appreciating Japan, a member of the G7, and an important factor of the international community, and for the deep friendship of our nations.” 

“A recognition of a Palestinian state would be a reward to Hamas after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks, would not contribute to peace and would not build on the trust of Israelis in the future,” he said. In recent weeks, Cohen relayed that message to Japanese ministers as the country weighed recognizing a Palestinian state as several governments, including those in Britain, France, Australia and Canada, have announced plans to do at the UNGA.

“This recognition is null and void because when you acknowledge a state there have to be conditions — what are the boundaries? Do you have effective control of the population? Nothing about that works with the Palestinians,” Cohen told JI. “Are they going to dismantle Hamas? Are they going to continue paying salaries for families of suicide bombers? Are they going to continue to have pacts with Iran against Israel? Is there going to be a repetition of Oct. 7 because they have a state? We are the Jewish people, we always have to be concerned and worried.” 

For Cohen, who assumed office as ambassador of Israel to Japan in October 2021 following a stint as deputy director general for Asia and Pacific division in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan’s consideration of recognizing a Palestinian state has been one of only a few disagreements he’s held with local politicians since arriving in Tokyo. In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, “the Japanese government stood by Israel, called for an immediate and unconditional release of our hostages and said publicly that Hamas should be dismantled,” Cohen said.

“I thank the Japanese for acknowledging that Hamas is a terrorist organization and for saying that Iran is the number one destabilizer of the region. I want to thank the Japanese government for standing on the right side of history.”

When war broke out between Israel and Hamas soon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Japan, as a member of the U.N. Security Council, “was trying to influence the release of the hostages and not to [attack] Israel. They were not mediating, but there were messages Japan was trying to deliver for both sides in order to bring our hostages back,” Cohen recalled. 

Looking ahead to the postwar period, Cohen suggested that Japan will contribute to rebuilding the Palestinian economy. “We will welcome any kind of investment in the Palestinian economy to revive it,” he said. “Economy is a major part of the vision of Palestinians living side by side with Israelis in peace and security.”  

While tourism from Japan to Israel has seen a decline amid the war, Cohen said that joint business ventures between the two countries have increased over the past two years, as Israeli tech companies engage with Japan’s industrial giants and venture capital networks.

“Investments from Japanese companies in Israel were much higher in 2024 than 2023, including in AI and technology,” he said. “There is a saying that Israel can do things from zero to one and Japanese can take them from one to 10. Israeli innovation and startups can be combined with Japanese wisdom, experience and production ability that Israel doesn’t have.”

When it comes to creating cars, for example, an area that Japan is a global leader in, “Israel should focus on the brain of the car, systems that prevent accidents such as Waze and Mobileye,” said Cohen. “The synergy that we can learn from Japan — and we can share our experience with them — I see a lot of potential in economic relations. Japanese companies are looking at Israeli startups with great interest. In the last two and a half years, there have been direct flights from Israel to Japan, which is important because businessmen and investors do not have time to waste. This is an engine for connecting the people of Israel and Japan.” 

Israel is among the handful of countries that Japan has a free trade deal with, an agreement signed by Cohen in March 2023. It allows 200 Israelis to come to Japan annually on a visa for one year of work, study and travel. At the same time, 200 Japanese citizens can come to Israel for one year to do the same.

Cohen sees himself not only as an ambassador of Israel “but also as representing the Jewish people in Japan,” he said, describing a small but vibrant community. Tokyo is home to two Chabad houses and a Jewish community center, which runs a pluralistic synagogue. The cities of Kyoto and Kobe also each have a Chabad. All five centers primarily cater to tourists. 

It can be a challenge to navigate Holocaust education and antisemitism awareness in a country with limited historical exposure to those issues, Cohen said, recommending that all Japanese visit the Holocaust Education Center in Fukuyama City, near Hiroshima. 

“The Japanese government comes to commemorate our Holocaust memorial days,” Cohen told JI. “They give thanks to [Chiune] Sugihara,” he said, referring to the Japanese diplomat who, while posted in Lithuania, saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. “We are participating in ceremonies to commemorate him. In Japan, he became a hero.”

“I see a lot of potential in the future when things calm down in the region,” continued Cohen. “I would like to have future agreements signed with Japan to boost the economy on both sides. I have many things on my agenda, but this will be after Rosh Hashanah.”

The Sept. 27 deadline to snap back United Nations sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and other weapons programs is rapidly approaching. 

The E3 — as France, Germany and the U.K. are known — announced last month that they planned to trigger the snapback sanctions mechanism, meaning the likely return of all U.N. sanctions that had been “sunsetted” per the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

In an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov on an episode of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy’s Mideast Horizons podcast, Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior advisor Richard Goldberg explained the snapback procedure and how the sanctions are expected to damage Iran’s economy.

Goldberg recently finished a stint as the Trump administration’s National Energy Dominance Council’s senior counselor and was the director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction in the first Trump administration. 

“The Iran nuclear deal, in 2015, set out all kinds of parameters for the years to come,” Goldberg said. “In 2020, the conventional arms embargo on Iran went away. That was scheduled to happen as one of these sunsets under the deal. That was a [U.N.] Security Council restriction previously on Iran. … The missile embargo goes away.”

Another part of the Iran deal set to sunset was the snapback mechanism itself, which expires at the end of this month.

Snapback “was part of the marketing sell to Congress and the American people by [former Secretary of State] John Kerry and [former President] Barack Obama at the time, saying that if Iran violates the deal at any time, we can just bring back all the sanctions from the U.N.,” Goldberg recounted.

The snapback procedure outlined in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran deal, states that after snapback is invoked, other U.N. Security Council members have 10 days to propose a resolution opposing the return of the sanctions. The council would then have to affirmatively vote not to enact snapback, with the permanent members retaining veto power, Goldberg explained.

Ten days after the E3 triggered the snapback sanctions process, no country had submitted such a resolution, requiring the current president of the UNSC, South Korea, to do so instead, and hold a vote within the 30-day period from the snapback announcement. The vote has not been scheduled yet, and in all likelihood, the U.S., France or the U.K. will veto the resolution, such that snapback will take effect.

“The process does appear to be unfolding by the book,” Goldberg said.

“The onus is on the Iranians or the Russians or the Chinese to try to overcome a U.S. or European veto,” Goldberg said. “We have all the cards.”

If the resolution to cancel snapback does not pass, then the JCPOA “sort of self-destructs,” he said. That means the return of the U.N. missile embargo and conventional arms embargo on Tehran, and Iran will no longer be permitted to enrich any uranium.

“Then, it’s on the secretariat, the U.N. staff, the secretary-general … to actually do the things that need to happen to roll back to the previous sanctions regime,” Goldberg said. “And that will be the next test to see if the Russians or Chinese exert some kind of pressure. … I expect it will occur at this point.”

Goldberg said it is important not to stop the snapback process, even if Iran suddenly agrees to cooperate. 

“You don’t stop the snapback, which goes away in just a few weeks,” he said. “You cannot trigger this again after October; it’s done. Iran just wins all these strategic gains forever. … You have to complete the snapback because you don’t get another chance at it.”

The impact of snapback would be significant on several fronts.

“On a strategic level, they will no longer have any claim of legitimacy to transfer weapons to Russia,” Goldberg said. “Technically, the Russians today will tell you that it is fully legal under the Security Council, which is true. … That will be done after the snapback is completed.”

It also sends a message to any other countries who may want to help Iran rebuild its nuclear program or its missile activities that “you are in violation of a Security Council resolution and [the U.S. and Europe] are going to hold you accountable.”

In addition, Goldberg said the sanctions will hurt the regime economically.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why they fought this so hard,” he said. 

Throughout the years, as the E3 spoke out against Iran’s violations of the JCPOA, the deal was still in place, Goldberg said, and even as the Iranian economy tanked, the sunsetting of sanctions gave the markets hope that they had not yet reached bottom.

“You have seen the Rial go back into freefall since snapback was triggered. That means there’s instability again. There’s uncertainty again. Once snapback happens and all the international resolutions come back, there is no hope of the JCPOA coming back. …The patient is dead, we’re sitting shiva, it is over. I think that is an unpredictable reality for the regime, for its economy and its financial stability,” he said.

At the same time, the U.N. sanctions are not financial; they are on weapons programs and trade in components, but not on individuals or banks.

Goldberg argued that Iran “value[s] the veneer of legitimacy” from being part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and what the sunsetting of U.N. sanctions permitted — such as selling drones that Russia used in its war against Ukraine.

“It’s a bizarre thing in regimes like Iran, even Russia, China, though they flout international law, conduct illicit activity, make a mockery of the international institutions which we founded and still care about,” he said, “they actually try to use them to create their own sense and source of legitimacy, so a Security Council resolution that has their back … is really valuable to them because it forces the Europeans to contort themselves.” 

“They yearn for that legitimacy to insulate themselves from further pressure from good actors,” he added.

Last week, Iran was elected vice-chair of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s annual conference, while refusing to allow the agency to inspect its nuclear sites.

“Only in the United Nations can such a thing occur,” Goldberg said, calling it “a wild, wild thing.” 

Iran is supposed to allow basic inspections of its nuclear facilities as a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Under the framework of the JCPOA, they agreed to adopt “additional protocols,” including snap inspections and videotaping of their nuclear facilities. Iran stopped respecting those commitments years ago.

Still, the IAEA was able to release quarterly reports on Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles, something that Goldberg said is “not going to happen for the foreseeable future, because all those stockpiles and the materials and the facilities are either heavily degraded or destroyed” by the June strikes by Israel and the U.S.

The world, however, “should be worried long-term about reconstitution efforts,” he said. 

The question remains how the world will know if Iran tries to reconstitute its nuclear program, given the lack of oversight.

“We will have to rely on Western intelligence between Israel, the U.S., partners and allies, and whatever else the IAEA can glean on its own from visits and tours that the Iranians allow … We should obviously be pushing them to accept inspections, robust verification and dismantlement of anything that is left over. … The nuclear-capable missile program still has infrastructure and could be threatening … and maybe foreign actors come in to help them as well,” Goldberg said. 

Fifty Senate Republicans wrote to the foreign ministers of the U.K., France and Germany on Tuesday urging them to hold firm in triggering snapback sanctions on Iran and requesting their cooperation in sanctions enforcement.

“While we back diplomatic efforts to restore Iran’s compliance with its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) commitments, the international community should not allow hollow gestures and cynical threats from Tehran to stop the snapback process,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter obtained by Jewish Insider. “The regime has abused diplomatic processes for years to avoid penalties. Sanctions relief should only be negotiated after snapback is fully implemented.”

They said that full, verifiable dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, restoration of International Atomic Energy Agency inspections and the end of Iran’s support for terrorist proxies and its ballistic missile program should be the “minimum” bar for sanctions relief.

The lawmakers, led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID), said they want to work with the European allies to ensure all United Nations member states and private actors comply with the U.N. sanctions.

“We understand your governments’ hope that diplomacy would eventually succeed in ending Iran’s nuclear program, but after a decade of the regime’s intransigence, its repeated deceptions, and its open support for Putin’s war against Ukraine, we will count on your governments to lead the charge and advance a passionate enforcement of sanctions against Iran — whether at the European Union, in your respective capitals, or in foreign capitals,” the letter continues.

Every Senate Republican — except for Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) — signed the letter.

The 50 signatories called on the European governments to work with the U.S. in joint efforts to prevent Iranian “proliferation and acquisition of military, missile, and nuclear goods, technologies, and components” and to “fully shutter Iran’s banking sector abroad,” including all bank branches in Europe.

“Closing off the regime’s financial pathways will curb the regime’s aggression. More pressure is necessary to ultimately bring Iran back to meaningful and serious diplomatic engagement on the full spectrum of its malign activities,” the lawmakers continued.

They also said they are “deeply concerned” about Iran’s oil sales to China and smuggling operations, and said they “appreciate the cooperation your governments have already shown in curbing these sales.”

The lawmakers thanked the E3 allies for triggering the snapback sanctions and their “leadership at this pivotal moment.”

An individual familiar with the situation told JI that Tuberville’s office was not provided with a deadline for signing on to the letter. The individual added that Tuberville has confidence in the Trump administration’s leadership on foreign policy.

Lee and Paul did not respond to requests for comment.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian researcher at Princeton University, was released by an Iranian-backed terrorist group in Iraq to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 while working on her doctoral thesis by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group separate from Lebanese Hezbollah.

“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!”

Tsurkov’s sister Emma, who has been a vocal advocate for her freedom, thanked the Trump administration in an X post, noting that her sister had been in captivity for more than 900 days.

“We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. If Adam had not made my sister’s return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be,” Tsurkov said. “We also want to thank Josh Harris and his team at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach who advocated relentlessly for my sister’s safe return.”

Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber also celebrated her release.

“The release of Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov brings relief and joy to the University community, and we celebrate that she will be reunited with her family. We thank President Trump for securing Elizabeth’s release,” Eisgruber said. “We are also grateful to those who worked tirelessly to bring an end to her terrible ordeal, including her family, friends and advocates.”

Multiple groups of U.S. lawmakers had appealed to administration officials to work to secure Tsurkov’s release. Kataib Hezbollah, the group that kidnapped Tsurkov, holds an official role in the Iraqi government.

Tsurkov’s captors released a video in 2023 in which Tsurkov claimed to be an Israeli and American spy, which Emma Tsurkov said was clearly made under duress.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who helped lead efforts earlier this year to advocate for Tsurkov’s release, told Jewish Insider he spoke on Tuesday evening with Emma Tsurkov while she was on a videoconference with her sister, a conversation he said was “very emotional.”

The Tsurkov family, Kim said, has been through “so much” and “I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for Elizabeth.”

“My immediate thoughts [are] just making sure she’s getting the care she needs. I’ve done a lot in the past … when I was at the State Department on hostages and the kind of care they need coming out of it,” he said. “So it’s going to be a long road ahead.”

He said that he wishes Emma “all the best with the recovery” and offered the family any help he can provide to ensure she receives the care she needs. He said he hopes to see both sisters in the United States in the future.

He added that Emma Tsurkov’s “strength as a sister, just being there, just holding that hope for Elizabeth … it’s amazing, it’s inspiring.”

Kim said he had not yet been briefed by the administration on Tsurkov’s release, including the terms by which the administration was able to secure Tsurkov’s freedom.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who joined a push with Kim for Tsurkov’s freedom, said in a statement, “I’m relieved to hear the news that Elizabeth Tsurkov has finally been released after being held hostage by extremists in Iraq for over two years. I’ve been proud to advocate for her release and applaud all the efforts that made this possible. My thoughts are with Elizabeth and the Tsurkov family as they reunite, and I wish them peace and healing.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led an appeal from House members for Tsurkov’s release, told JI, “I am overjoyed for Elizabeth Tsurkov’s family and loved ones on this happy occasion. I have long pushed for Elizabeth’s safe return and I’m sending her my prayers and solidarity as she returns home to recover from a 903-day-long nightmare.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said on X, “I am deeply grateful that Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released and will finally be reunited with her family and loved ones. Thankful for all who partnered in advocating for her release and for all who tirelessly worked to ensure her safe return.”

France, Germany and the United Kingdom triggered the snapback sanctions mechanism on Thursday, to reinstate all United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran that had been lifted since the implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The European parties to the Iran deal, known as the E3, notified the UNSC that they were triggering snapback sanctions due to Iran’s continued noncompliance with its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to which they are still parties despite the U.S. withdrawal in 2018. 

If the UNSC does not adopt a resolution stopping the process — which is unlikely unless Iran reaches an agreement with the West, because it would be subject to vetoes from the states triggering the sanctions and the U.S. — all of the sanctions sunsetted in the framework of the 2015 deal will be restored in 30 days.

However, the E3 said it is open to continuing negotiations with Iran during those 30 days.

The E3’s move came after its foreign ministers met with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva earlier this week in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement with the Islamic Republic to scale back its nuclear program. It also comes less than three months after Israel and the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, after which U.S.-Iranian negotiations broke down.

“Since 2019,” the E3 foreign ministers’ statement reads, “Iran has exceeded JCPoA limits on enriched uranium, heavy water, and centrifuges, restricted the IAEA’s ability to conduct JCPoA verification and monitoring activities, and has abandoned the implementation and the ratification process of the Additional Protocol to its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement. These actions contravene Iran’s commitments set out in the JCPoA and have serious implications on the capacity of Iran to progress toward developing a nuclear weapon.”  

The E3 noted that it repeatedly negotiated with Iran to return to its 2015 commitments, to no avail. 

“Today, Iran’s non-compliance with the JCPoA is clear and deliberate, and sites of major proliferation concern in Iran are outside of IAEA monitoring,” the foreign ministers stated. “Iran has no civilian justification for its high enriched uranium stockpile … Its nuclear program therefore remains a clear threat to international peace and security.” 

Among the sanctions that would be restored are an arms embargo, a ban on Iranian uranium enrichment and reprocessing, a ban on transferring ballistic missile technology and technical assistance, a global asset freeze on targeted Iranian individuals and entities and foreign inspections of Iranian cargo planes.

The snapback mechanism was set to expire at the end of October, in accordance with the terms of the JCPOA, but Russia will assume the presidency of the UNSC in October, raising concerns in the West that it would try to delay the 30-day snapback process. As such, the E3 set a deadline for the end of August for Iran to make progress in rolling back its nuclear program. 

In 2020, two years after the U.S. left the JCPOA, the first Trump administration attempted to trigger snapback sanctions, but the other parties argued that it was no longer entitled to do so. 

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that it “categorically reject[s] and condemn[s] in strongest terms the unlawful notification by the E3 to the UNSC … This escalation will severely undermine the ongoing process of engagement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency. It will be met with appropriate responses.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. supports the E3’s move and called it “a direct response to Iran’s continuing defiance of its nuclear commitments.”

“At the same time,” Rubio said in a statement, “the United States remains available for direct engagement with Iran … Snapback does not contradict our earnest readiness for diplomacy, it only enhances it.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar posted on X that “even after Israel and the U.S. operation against Iran’s nuclear program, Iran hasn’t abandoned its desire to acquire a nuclear weapon. This is why the E3’s move to initiate the return of UN sanctions on Iran is inevitable. It is an important step in the diplomatic campaign to counter the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions.”

Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday that the “case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago,” adding that he now backs such efforts.

“The thing that we were grappling with throughout all of 2024, which is not the case today, is that Israel was under attack from multiple fronts,” Sullivan, who served under President Joe Biden, told The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “It was under attack from Hezbollah, from the Houthis, from Syria, from Iraq, obviously from Hamas and from Iran itself. So the idea of saying, ‘Israel, we’re not going to give you a whole set of military tools’ in that context was challenging.”

“The case for withholding weapons from Israel today is much stronger than it was one year ago,” Sullivan added. “One, they don’t face the same regional threats. Two, there was a ceasefire hostage deal in place and the ability to have negotiations, and it was Israel who just walked away from it without negotiating seriously. Three, there is a full-blown famine in Gaza. And four, there are no more serious military objectives to achieve. It’s just bombing the rubble into rubble.”

Sullivan, who was tapped as the inaugural Kissinger Professor of the Practice of Statecraft and World Order at the Harvard Kennedy School, suggested that the political makeup of the Israeli government could affect the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

“If nothing changes in their government — if it continues to be a far-right government that pursues the same policies — then it won’t be the Israel we’ve known,” Sullivan said. “I think a lot of Israelis would say they wouldn’t recognize that Israel. And obviously, that should have an impact on the relationship.”

National security experts are warning that Jewish communities around the world could face increased Iranian threats following the recent accusation by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps orchestrated attacks last year on a synagogue and kosher restaurant in the country.

“We’ve seen Iranian penetration in many Westernized countries, with Australia now being the latest. Though to see direct evidence of a linkage to actual violence — not just disinformation campaigns or cyber campaigns — is very frightening,” Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Jewish Insider. 

On Tuesday, Albanese announced the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador in Canberra — the first time Australia has expelled a foreign ambassador since World War II — as well as three other embassy staffers, and designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group, after Australian intelligence indicated that Tehran was behind the 2024 attacks. 

Goldberg called it “earth-shattering” that Australia’s “left-wing prime minister, who may not agree on a whole lot of politics with the U.S., has been woken up to the very sobering reality of Iranian threats in his own country.” 

Goldberg urged Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union to “follow swiftly” in severing diplomatic relations with Iran, and for the U.S. and Australia to put diplomatic pressure on other governments to designate IRGC as a terrorist organization. Nearly all the major EU countries still have full diplomatic ties with Iran. 

“We know that Canada is highly penetrated by Iranian assets and the IRGC inside the country without having a very clear designation as a terrorist organization,” said Goldberg. “We’ve seen terrorist plots that are Iranian sponsored on British soil and the British government is still dragging its feet on prescribing the IRGC as a terrorist group. We know that they have operatives, both undercover as diplomats and as operatives, throughout the EU.” 

More than a year ago, the Biden administration’s director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, warned of the Iranian regime’s efforts to take advantage of campus unrest. In light of Australia going public with the Iranian threat, Goldberg urged the Trump administration to order an updated review of Iranian influence efforts in the U.S. 

“We all sort of forgot about that report, but it was big news at the time [even though] we never got a lot of detail on that,” he said. “Nobody has asked the question of what’s the current status of Iranian influence on protest movements or acts of violence in the U.S. We suspect that Iran has agents in the U.S. Some of those people have been arrested in the past. This has to remain a key priority for the FBI and [Department of] Homeland Security.”  

Matt Levitt, director of the Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, called for increased awareness of “Iranian external operations around the world, including in the U.S., in which the IRGC and other Iranian government agencies increasingly pay criminal proxies to carry out acts of violence, intimidation, and even kidnapping and murder on their behalf,” he said in a statement to JI. 

Heads of security organizations that monitor American Jewish communal safety said that the latest news coming out of Australia — in addition to an already heightened fear of Iranian retaliation following the U.S. airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities in June — make threats from Iran and its proxy groups particularly alarming. 

“The FBI and NYPD have had live investigations that have resulted in arrests of Hezbollah operatives in New York City casing out institutions,” Mitch Silber, executive director of the Community Security Initiative, which works to safeguard Jewish communities, told JI. “Iranians have a long timeline. Just because [an attack] hasn’t happened in the last six to eight weeks [since the airstrikes] doesn’t mean that the Iranians haven’t stopped plotting.” 

Silber pointed to the recent case of a Hezbollah operative in Texas purchasing 300 pounds of ammonium nitrate. “Why would you [purchase] an explosive if you weren’t thinking of potentially trying to use it somewhere in the U.S.?” he said. 

“These developments in Australia reflect yet another tentacle of the IRGC in its escalating influence campaigns: furthering violence, destruction and discord, with the Jewish community bearing the brunt,” Michael Masters, Secure Community Network director and CEO, told JI. 

“We applaud the Australian government for shining the disinfecting light of day regarding these attacks. It only underscores the continued need for reporting, coordination and proactive security efforts by and for the Jewish community.”

France, Germany and the U.K. are poised to reinstate snapback sanctions on Iran in the next several days, after talks held in Geneva this week aimed at scaling back Iran’s nuclear program reportedly concluded with little progress.

The three countries — known as the E3 — sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month outlining “ongoing concerns regarding the lack of assurances as to the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program” and Tehran’s ongoing violations of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, to which the E3 countries are still parties despite the U.S. withdrawal in 2018. 

The countries threatened to reinstate snapback sanctions by the end of August 2025 if “no satisfactory resolution” to the issue was reached before then. 

The mechanism to trigger snapback sanctions at the UNSC expires in October, at which point any attempt to adopt new UNSC sanctions could face vetoes from Russia and China. However, the E3 and U.S. are looking to start the process before Russia assumes the UNSC presidency in October, giving it the power to delay the imposition of snapback sanctions — a process that takes 30 days to complete — until its expiration date. 

The foreign ministers of the E3 and Iran met in Geneva earlier this week to discuss a diplomatic solution that would see Iran roll back its nuclear program without additional sanctions, which reportedly ended with little progress made.

A senior European diplomat told Axios on Wednesday that it would take a “diplomatic miracle” to prevent the reinstatement of snapback sanctions, with the European nations poised to trigger the mechanism as soon as Thursday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a call with the E3 foreign ministers on Wednesday, during which all of the officials “reiterated their commitment to ensuring that Iran never develops or obtains a nuclear weapon,” State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.

U.S. lawmakers have repeatedly pressed for the E3 to trigger the snapback mechanism.

Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador in Canberra as well as three other embassy staffers on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accusing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of orchestrating attacks on a synagogue in Melbourne and a kosher restaurant in Sydney.

Albanese, speaking at a press conference alongside the country’s top intelligence official, foreign minister and home affairs minister, called the plots “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil.” The expulsion of Ahmad Sadeghi marks the first time Australia has expelled a foreign ambassador since World War II.

Canberra also withdrew its diplomatic staff from Iran and has encouraged Australian citizens to leave the country if they are able.

Australian intelligence indicates that Tehran was behind additional antisemitic attacks in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. The country has seen an explosion of antisemitism, with a 316% year-over-year increase in antisemitic incidents in the year following the attacks.

Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said that the plots were carried out “through a series of overseas cut-out facilitators to coordinators that found their way to tasking Australians,” describing the scheme as a “layer cake” of middlemen originating with the IRGC.

The expulsion of the Iranian diplomats comes shortly after the arrests of two individuals in connection with the December 2024 Melbourne synagogue attack, in which a synagogue was firebombed while nearly two dozen people were inside. 

The arson at Sydney’s Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, which took place in October 2024, caused $1 million in damage to the kosher restaurant. Court documents released earlier this month indicate that a middleman, Sayed Moosawi, who was directing the Sydney attack, was to receive $12,000 for his work. Prior to the fire at Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, two men directed by Moosawi mistakenly set fire to a brewery with a similar name to the restaurant.

President Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin on Tuesday that at the time of the U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, he believed Tehran “would have had nuclear weapons in a period of four weeks.”

Calling in to Levin’s radio show, Trump said that, “if we didn’t [strike Iran], they would probably by this time, just about this time, have a nuclear weapon and they would have used it.”

Trump said that, despite news reports questioning his assessment of the efficacy of the strikes, “it turned out that” the impacts were “even more so than I said. It was obliteration.”

“The Atomic Energy Commission said, this place is gone. [Iran] can maybe start up, but they’re not starting up there,” Trump said of the Iranian nuclear facilities targeted in the operation. The Israel Atomic Energy Commission found that the U.S. strike on the Fordow nuclear facility “destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure” and rendered it “inoperable,” though reports differ on the extent of the damage. 

The president told Levin that the U.S. Air Force pilots who conducted the strikes told him that they and their predecessors had been practicing the flight to Iranian airspace for 22 years.

Trump lauded his peacemaking abilities, saying, “I’ve settled six wars and we did the Iran night, wiped out their whole nuclear capability, which they would have used against Israel in two seconds if they had the chance.”

He called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war hero” and said, “I guess I am, too. … I mean, I sent those planes.”