US delivers major strike on Iran-backed Houthi weapons

Canada's move was made alongside the US Treasury Department's decision to list the group as a specially designated global terrorist entity.

Samidoun, which means "the steadfast ones" in Arabic, had been registered as a non-profit in Canada since March 2021.

"Violent extremism, acts of terrorism or terrorist financing have no place in Canadian society or abroad," Canada's Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement.

"The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada.”

The US and Canada allege that Samidoun has links with another terrorist-designated group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Samidoun describe themselves on their official website as being advocates for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The organization did not immediately respond to an Iran International request for comment.

According to Public Safety Canada (PSC) many of those prisoners have ties to assassinations and attacks against Israel.

The PSC says Samidoun has been operating since 2011 and has 20 chapters around the world, including Iran, which Canada designated as a state supporter of terrorism.

Elham Abedini is listed as the coordinator of Samidoun's Iran chapter on Samidoun's official website.

NGO Monitor, a research institute that has been investigating and raising concern over Samidoun to governments around the world since 2018, says the group has an informal connection to the Islamic Republic of Iran through a shared ideology and Iran's pursuit of soft power.

The non-profit's communications director Itai Reuveni told Iran International that Iran uses groups like Samidoun to exert its ideology and influence in the West without revealing themselves as the source.

"This fits to the Iranian practice to only use proxies. Samidoun is part of the proxies. Not just Hezbollah and Hamas, but also through soft power proxies " says Reuveni.

The anti-west, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic Republic narrative fits in with Iran's narrative that it wants to export through groups like Samidoun, who have direct access to the West, Reuveni added.

In July, a top US intelligence official revealed that the Iranian government provided financial support for the pro-Palestinian demonstrations rocking US campuses. An Iran International exclusive also found evidence that Iran was behind campus protests rocking McGill university in Canada.

Matthew Levitt, the director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Samidoun was "explicitly active in some of the most vile pro-violence behavior at campus protests. "

Levitt, the author of Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God, says Iran has definite ties to the PLFP, for which Samidoun was acting as "sham charity" front, according to a US treasury statement on Wednesday.

“Organizations like Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” said US treasury official Bradley T. Smith in the statement.

Samidoun and Iran

Samidoun's director, Charlotte Kates, accepted an official "human rights award" in Iran on August 4th, an accolade that was also bestowed on the secretary-general of militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Kates also appeared on Iran State TV, where she praised Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“I spoke about the brave, heroic October 7 operation and the legitimacy of the resistance,” Kates said, dedicating the award to the “martyrs and prisoners of Palestine.”

In a March 2024 Samidoun-hosted webinar, Kates praised Hamas as “the people that are on the frontlines, defending Palestine and fighting for its liberation".

Kates is also under a hate speech investigation in Canada for praising the attack.

Samidoun's website covered Kates's meeting with Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's Secretary-General of the High Council for Human Rights at the awards ceremony in Tehran. Kates also took part in a joint live interview with Gharibabadi.

The existence of Samidoun's Tehran chapter and their participation in Iranian state events could not happen without the Iran government's approval, says NGO Monitor's Reuveni.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the Popular Resistance Committees have themselves cited a relationship with Iran including military support.

Kates's husband, Khaled Barakat, also a director of Samidoun, was identified by the US treasury statement as allegedly backing the fundraising and recruitment efforts to support the PFLP's "terrorist activity against Israel". Israeli security service Shin Bet alleges that Barakat is an active senior member of the PFLP.

The PFLP operates in Gaza and the West Bank and participated in attacking Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, the treasury department added.

Some Iran watchers like Jason Brodsky say that the PFLP's direct links to Iran are evidence enough linking Samidoun to the Islamic Republic.

Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), says Kates' official visits to Iran, appearance on state TV and meeting with high-level officials like Iran's Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei points to an official link with the Islamic Republic.

In 2011 by the United States Department of State and the European Union sanctioned Ejei for his role in suppressing the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests.

"My concern is that the Islamic Republic likes to cultivate these individuals who have access to the West," Brodsky said.

"She is engaged in messaging that is very much in line with the Islamic Republic's ideological outlook," added Brodsky.

According to NGO monitor, Samidoun does not publish financial information, and is only registered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

However, Samidoun is a fiscally sponsored project of the Alliance for Global Justice (AFJG), an Arizona-based organization. The AFJG also is a fiscal sponsor for left-wing initiatives including the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

In May 2019, PayPal, DonorBox, and Plaid shut down online donations to Samidoun due to its alleged links to the PFLP.

Samidoun has also been listed as a terrorist entity in Israel and banned in Germany and the Netherlands. The Dutch parliament voted to designate Samidoun a terrorist organization this week.

The overarching message from his previous meetings, Araghchi has reaffirmed Iran’s position that it "does not want war" but is "fully prepared for a war situation."

Following visits to Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, and Oman, Iran’s top diplomat will continue to Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey.

While Iran has actively tried to engage in regional diplomacy to counter Israel's actions and mitigate US influence, one former Iranian diplomat says the state’s strategy is bound to fail.

In an interview with the Iranian news site Khabar Online, Iran’s former ambassador to Jordan, Nosratollah Tajik, argued that the Islamic Republic cannot realistically expect neighboring countries to fully align with its stance against Israel.

Tajik says that Tehran lacks a comprehensive approach that aligns with the priorities of neighboring states, stating that many – particularly Saudi Arabia – are focused on economic stability and are unlikely to adopt an anti-Israel stance just to support Iran's position.

On October 1, Tehran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, declaring the strike a response to the recent killings of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah and Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) General Abbas Nilforoushan in Lebanon.

Since Israel's vow to retaliate, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly assured the Biden administration that any potential strike would target military assets rather than Iran’s oil or nuclear facilities. Prior to that, a top US State Department official told CNN that Israel has given no assurances it won’t target Iran’s nuclear facilities.

"Some think the US has turned a blind eye to Israel's actions! Not at all. The US, with full awareness, has allowed Israel a free hand to undermine Iran’s position in the region, enabling any crimes in Gaza and Lebanon," Tajik further argued in the interview. Currently residing in the UK, Tajik's diplomatic career faced complications following his 2006 arrest there on alleged arms trafficking charges—a case that garnered substantial media attention.

Amid his continuing Middle East tour, Iran’s foreign minister also announced that indirect talks with the United States would not continue, citing the worsening Middle East crisis as a barrier to further negotiations.

"We do not see a basis for these talks until the current crisis is resolved. Afterward, we will decide whether to resume negotiations and in what form they should continue," Araghchi said in Oman, which had previously facilitated indirect talks with the US.

Araghchi also held talks with a senior official from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement.

The specifics of his discussions with the Houthi official were not disclosed. However, Yemen’s Houthis, along with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, form part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance,” a coalition of militant groups aligned against Israel.

It is the third such arrest in a matter of weeks. Vladimir Varehovskim 35, from Petah Tikva in central Israel, is alleged to have agreed to carry out the assassination and now faces a court hearing on Wednesday, October 16.

In a joint operation, Shin Bet and Israel Police uncovered "an Iranian intelligence network working to recruit and activate citizens in Israel," according to a police statement.

“Some of the tasks performed were documented by Vladimir and payment was received for their performance,” a statement from Israel Police said. “The contact between him and the Iranian officials took place in the English language and as part of it he was asked to purchase a dedicated phone.”

After having done a series of smaller operations for Iran such as gathering information about an Israeli entity, hanging banners and spraying graffiti, “Vladimir later agreed to carry out a mission to eliminate an Israeli scientist for the sum of $100,000”, Israel Police said.

Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence and defense expert, told Iran International: “The Iranians are learning from Western intelligence methods which had been taken from Israeli operations in order to target Israeli officials. Iran is also learning from the Russians.”

He said recruitment is being done by a cyber program, the latest suspect being recruited by Facebook. Recent recruits have also been recruited through Telegram.

“The Iranians see Russians as the weak link in Israeli society,” he said, hundreds of thousands having used Israel’s right of return laws for Jews since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“This is the second case in a row, so it could be the same handler in Iran,” he added.

Many of the roughly 1.5 million Russians in Israel are atheist and do not integrate as well into Israeli society as others, preferring to live in areas with large numbers of fellow Russian speakers.

Since the war with Ukraine making travel for Russians increasingly hard, Israel absorbed many more seeking a second passport.

It follows the arrest on Monday of Vladislav Victorson, 30, on charges of orchestrating an assassination plot on behalf of Iran. The Russian, living in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, had been in contact through social networks with a person named "Mari Hossi”, speaking in Hebrew.

Victorson was also accused of agreeing to assassinate an Israeli citizen and throw a grenade at his home, the statement from Israel Police saying he had worked to obtain weapons, including a sniper rifle, pistols and grenades.

He was also accused of having carried out tasks including burying money and burning vehicles in Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. In addition, he was asked to sabotage communication infrastructure and ATMs as well as set fire to forests.

He is alleged to have recruited two other citizens, including his partner, Anna Bernstein, just 18 years old, who took part in several tasks in the operation.

Israel Police said he was also accused of locating street gangs in order to recruit them to perform additional tasks and photograph demonstrators during protests.

Asher Ben Artzi, the former head of Israel's Interpol, warned: "The Iranian intelligence is quite sophisticated. They are very active."

A closed community, he said Israel's Russians are vulnerable to recruitment. "We can assume that as many of them have a tough life here, they could be more angry at the state of Israel. If you offer such people a lot of money, they don't resist such a temptation," he told Iran International.

"The bottom line is that Iranian intelligence is very dangerous for us," he added as cases of this kind become ever more frequent.

Iran-backed plots recruiting date back more than a decade and have seen Iran hiring a wide spectrum of society, including an orthodox Jew from the religious suburb of Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, arrested in July. In 2022, a network of Israeli women was uncovered as having been recruited by Iran.

Last month, Israel revealed they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate top leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of Shin Bet and the country’s defence minister.

Moti Maman, a 73-year-old Israeli businessman from the city of Ashkelon, was accused of twice smuggling himself into Iran via Turkey to meet with intelligence officials directing the plots from Tehran.

“Europe chose the path of confrontation instead of interaction with Iran by starting a new round of sanctions under the false pretext that Iran has sent missiles to Russia. Now Europe must wait to pay the cost of its decision,” Kayhan argued on Wednesday in an article titled “Europe Shut the Sky to Iranian Flights, Block the Sea to European Ships."

“Iran definitely has more capabilities to put pressure on Europe today in the gambit that they started,” the ultra-hardline daily whose managing editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, is an appointee of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, wrote, arguing that preventing European vessels from reaching their destinations in the Persian Gulf will be more costly to Europe than the ban on Iranian flights.

Iran Air, the only Iranian airline operating flights to European Union countries, suspended all its services to Europe due to new sanctions imposed by the European Union that targeted Iran Air, Mahan Air which is partly owned by a Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked company, and Saha Airlines, a civil operator owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force.

The United States and its Western allies accuse Iran of using its civilian flights to send weapons including missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine. The Islamic Republic denies any missile transfer to Russia.

There have always been allegations that the Islamic Republic uses its civilian fleet for military transfers.

Iran International acquired the audio file of an interview with former foreign minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif in April 2021. In the interview that was never published in Iran, Zarif criticized Qasem Soleimani, the slain commander of the extra-territorial arm of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the Qods Force, of using Iran Air flights for shipments, presumably fighters and weapons, to Syria rather than the allegedly IRGC-linked Mahan Air which he said was less safe.

Mahan Air was designated by the US Treasury in 2011 for "providing financial, material and technological support” to the IRGC. These were followed by bans by several European countries including Denmark and Germany in the following years until the airline lost all its flights to European destinations by Spain joining the embargo in 2020.

Iranian officials and hardliners have periodically called for the closure of Hormuz as retaliation for various Western actions. Around 21 percent of the world's crude oil passes through the straits, heavily patrolled by both Iran and Western navies. This means that a closure of Hormuz will also stop all of Iran's oil shipments and a significant portion of China's oil inports. From January to September, China imported 4.2 mb/d of crude via the Strait of Hormuz, accounting for 43% of its seaborne crude.

Iranians have taken to social media since the announcement of the Iran Air sanctions and the country’s suspension of its flights to European destinations to voice their frustration.

There were unconfirmed reports on social media Wednesday that an Iran Air flight to Turkey was not granted permission to land for several hours due to the EU sanctions.

Iran Air sanctions mean that no Iranian can fly directly to destinations in the Western Hemisphere without using a connecting flight from other regional airports such as those in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, or Qatar.

Some netizens contend that the suspension of direct flights to Europe will highly affect expatriate Iranians including students and their families, including the elderly and the sick who will find it very difficult to find their way through non-European airports to board connecting flights.

“My understanding is that the Supreme leader has held the same view from the strategic point of view, in addition to the Sharia perspective, since he issued his religious edict [to ban weapons of mass destruction], and even before that,” Zarif told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Tuesday.

The comment was made in response to a question about ultra-hardliner lawmakers’ demand for a change in Iran's ‘defense doctrine’ and considering nuclear weapons to allow a strategy of ‘nuclear deterrence’ to be drawn.

The step that these lawmakers urged the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to take requires Khamenei’s clear and definite approval, both as Supreme Leader and as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Iran's government has always maintained that it will not pursue nuclear arms because Khamenei’s fatwa (religious edict) has banned all weapons of mass destruction including nuclear bombs. Khamenei’s ruling was presented by Iranian officials at the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament in April 2010.

“We consider the use of such weapons as haram [religiously forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster,” Khamenei’s statement read.

Skeptics argue that what Iranian authorities refer to as a fatwa was only an advisory opinion, not a legal document that cannot be revoked and was meant to mislead the international community about the real intentions behind a nuclear program that Iran has always maintained is peaceful.

Fatwas by Shia Marja (a source of emulation) are not set in stone, as skeptics say. They could be altered or overturned given the ‘requirement of time and place’ as many historical instances prove.

“What has been declared as haram by Khamenei, whatever the intentions behind it may have been at the time, requires a clear public statement to make it halal, that is, permissible,” a commentator in Tehran told Iran International, adding that the change that ultra-hardliners demand requires leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), also a decision that only Khamenei can make.

“By publicly demanding that he endorses a move towards building and testing a nuclear bomb, these lawmakers are actually challenging the Leader to make a drastic decision in these circumstances,” he added.

Masoud Pezeshkian’s government has used the same argument as Hassan Rouhani’s government which used the fatwa to convince the international community that Iran's nuclear program was peaceful.

“The government's stance on building atomic bombs is the same as [declared by] the Supreme Leader, which he has emphasized many times … Matters such as nuclear energy are regulated under the leadership of the Supreme Leader,” Fatemeh Mohajerani, spokesperson of Masoud Pezeshkian’s government, stressed last week in reaction to the lawmakers’ demand.

“[The Leader] has stated many times that the Islamic Republic has the ability to build a nuclear bomb, but this is forbidden from the point of view of Sharia. This is the official position of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” she added.

In an article Sunday entitled “Adventurism or Deterrence”, the reformist Ham-Mihan newspaper criticized ultra-hardliners’ move. The article argued that rationality can have a greater deterrence power than a nuclear bomb when what they demand could provide Israel and the West with “an excuse for a military confrontation with Iran."

“An invitation for an invasion of the country? The tune that some circles are singing about the need for ‘changing Iran's nuclear doctrine’ is rooted in their deep ignorance of the power relations in the Middle East and at the international level,” reformist activist and journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi wrote last week in response to the lawmakers’ letter to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).

Speaking of a change in the nuclear doctrine will not only fail to secure the least level of deterrence but could also be construed as a “some kind of invitation to a military attack on the country by a well-equipped and powerful military alliance,” Zeidabadi who was widely quoted by Iranian media argued. “Is that what they want?” he asked.

He argued that if Iran could “build, safely maintain, and use” a nuclear bomb there could be nothing other than trouble for the country. Such a move would lead to the formation of a united international alliance against a “strategically alone” Iran, he said while pointing out that even Iran's powerful allies, China and Russia, do not want it to become a nuclear power.

Ultra-hardliners’ move will only boost the work of the “enemy's propaganda machine against Iran," conservative commentator Hassan Beheshtipour told the reformist Ham-Mihan newspaper in an interview published Monday.

“This is a miscalculation. [Such] people don’t pay attention to the fact that our nuclear program is conducted under the supervision of IAEA inspectors and bringing up such matters will achieve nothing except creating media and propaganda trouble for Iran and provide its enemies with something to maneuver on,” he added.

Beheshtipour argued that those who demand a change in Iran's ‘nuclear doctrine’ could not achieve anything even if they meant to boost Iran's power of deterrence.