US says Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire 'within our grasp'

Ahmad Ajam, a member of the Iranian parliament who secured his seat with a modest share of votes in his constituency, is among those eager for dialogue. He has even proposed including a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon as a topic for talks, disregarding the risks faced by higher-ranking politicians who have suggested negotiations with US officials without the prior approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi faced serious backlash after rumors emerged that Iran's chief diplomat in New York, Saeed Iravani, had engaged in secret talks with Trump advisor Elon Musk and even promoted investment in Iran. The hardliner daily *Kayhan*, closely aligned with Khamenei's office, sharply criticized Araghchi and went as far as accusing him of treason.

The news of the meeting, shared with The New York Times by two unnamed Iranian officials, was likely an attempt to gauge reactions from Khamenei and the IRGC, the key power brokers in Iran's government, to see if they would support or oppose the proposal. Critics also accused Araghchi of being complicit with former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal, which hardliners claimed primarily benefited the West.

On Sunday, 207 of Iran's 290 lawmakers approved the urgency of a bill calling for the dismissal of officials like Javad Zarif, whose children allegedly hold US citizenship. Iranian media report that the bill is specifically aimed at Zarif within the government.

Amid this, Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, a leader of the 1979 US embassy takeover in Tehran, in which over 50 US diplomats were held hostage, told a Tehran news outlet that "with or without negotiations with Trump, time is against Iran."

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Asgharzadeh emphasized that "only innovative talks on equal footing with the United States can shift the situation in Iran's favor," while noting that "even confidence-building with China and Russia is no longer sufficient to help Iran." Now regarded as a Reformist figure, he reiterated that "dismantling the security net surrounding Iran could potentially end its dangerous isolation and pave the way for the country’s development."

He further warned that "provocative slogans and ambitious claims will surely rally the world's public opinion against us." A good example of such provocations and ambitions was Kayhan’s article that said, "If rumors about the meeting between Musk and Iravani were true, it would have been a dangerous and damaging development that would have undermined Iran's dignity and authority."

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Kayhan previously accused Reformists and centrists in Iran of attempting to portray Trump as having changed since 2016, suggesting that engaging in talks with him could be Iran's path out of isolation. The publication claimed that US administrations are convinced they can extract concessions from Iran by encouraging Iranians to rise against their government, as seen in the numerous protests since 2018.

In his interview, Asgharzadeh warned that time is running out and that persisting with outdated policies will not benefit Tehran. He emphasized that Iran's primary challenge lies with the United States, a conflict he believes poses a threat to the Islamic Republic's very existence. Asgharzadeh noted that in its dispute with the US, Iran adopts a confrontational stance toward a third country, Israel, while simultaneously advocating for the rights of a fourth, the Palestinians.

The reformist figure argued that while Iran claimed President Masoud Pezeshkian's victory in the July election signaled a shift toward change and readiness for rapprochement with the West, the decision to invite Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to his inauguration undermined that message.

He observed that Trump aims to establish a new order in the Middle East and cautioned that, under the current circumstances, any action provoking a US military strike on Iran could devastate the country's economy and infrastructure, potentially triggering a domestic revolt. Instead, he advocated for a strategy of creative diplomacy to minimize the risk of military aggression against Tehran.

The victims' families filed the lawsuit against Iran in the US District Court in Washington on November 17. Forty-six Americans were among the more than 1,200 killed during the attack and 12 American citizens were among the more than 250 hostages kidnapped to Gaza. 

The suit, which has been reviewed by Iran International, is based on the evidence presented by attorneys for the plaintiffs in what they refer to as secret documents uncovered by lawyer Gary Osen.

“The October 7 Attack, led by Hamas and joined by PIJ, the PFLP and others, was part of a fully coordinated plan, financed and managed by Iran through the IRGC QF, to annihilate Israel by attacking it from multiple fronts simultaneously,” the lawsuit reads.

Documents include a list of payments made by Iran to Hamas leaders over the years and discussions of mutual defense agreement between Palestinian groups, Iran, and its proxies.

The complaint also includes a decision to request the Islamic Republic send Hamas $7 million monthly for mobilization of a planned confrontation.

The lawsuit also alleges that Iran and its proxies planned what they called a big deception before Yahya Sinwar’s “Big Project” with Iran’s Axis of Resistance.

“It appears that Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC pulled off a 'double bluff' in planning the October 7 operation—deceiving Israel by openly stating their intentions in a way that convinced Israel that they were saber-rattling rather than carrying out a concrete plan of attack,” the lawsuit claims.

Ruby Chen's son Itay, 19, was understood to have been held hostage until it was confirmed this year that the young soldier was killed on October 7 and his body taken to Gaza.

For the bereft father, the lawsuit is at least a step to help prevent other families suffering the same tragedy and the chance to broaden a crackdown on terror funding.

"Iran funds a global terrorism financing network which Hamas benefits from. Money to support terrorism raised worldwide is currently 'parking' in various 'charity organizations' in countries such as Turkey, Kuwait, Indonesia and others," he told Iran International.

"The court case is to prevent those funds from being used for future terrorist attacks and deter other countries from funding terrorism."

While the concept of justice seems elusive to the families of the 101 hostages in Gaza, around half believed to be dead, their loved ones' return the only possible compensation, he said there is a bigger mission.

"We would like to see the expansion of the list of terrorist countries to organizations such as financial institutions or charity funds that enable the global terrorist financial network to be blacklisted and enable US victims to sue them as well and be accountable for the money transferred to Hamas and enabled the vicious October 7 attacks," he added.

For Iris, this is about holding Iran accountable and to send a message.

“It’s about making sure we understand the role that the IRGC is playing in all of this. It’s about the October 7th attack that was led by Hamas, but it was also led by the Islamic regime in Iran, who makes sure that Hamas has their weapons, make sure that they operate the same way that the Islamic regime in Iran wants them to operate,” Iris told Iran International.

She lost not only her parents, but 117 people that she knew growing up in Kibbutz Nir Oz were suddenly dead, missing or kidnapped in just one day. Judi Weinstein Haggai and Gadi Haggai, like much of Kibbutz Nir Oz, were pro-peace activists who abhorred war, said their daughter Iris.

On October 7, their morning routine walk in their Kibbutz turned into tragedy.

Judi witnessed her husband being killed. She called medical emergency services, describing in detail what had happened over the phone. Iris said she listened to the recordings. Judi had also been shot by Hamas, and it is not known if she died of her wounds or if she was killed after. Both their bodies are being held hostage in Gaza,

“It's not just about my parents. It's about the whole community. 117 people disappeared from my life in one day,” said Iris.

Iris said the lawsuit has evidence of Iran’s role in October 7 and that she is hoping this will help put the spotlight on that to dissuade Iran from using its proxies as a cover.

The lawsuit could have an indirect or direct impact on the Islamic Republic establishment, Gissou Nia, an international human rights lawyer told Iran International.

Nia, who helped lead the successful campaign to remove the Islamic Republic of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women, said most of the Islamic Republic’s direct assets were seized and have already been paid out.

But she said the impact can sometimes be direct, like in the case of US authorities seizing Iranian flag tankers in open waters. The proceeds from that liquidated tankers go into a fund for US Victims Fund of State sponsored terror.

“But if people evade sanctions, if companies, for example, BNP Paribas, a bank that was doing banking with Islamic Republic of Iran officials and other affiliated entities, if they had to pay a certain penalty to the U.S. government because they were found in violation of that, that's the kind of money that would go into a fund.”

Foreign governments are generally considered beyond the jurisdiction of US courts, but the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) allows the courts to hold these countries accountable, where immunity is not absolute.

In the Monday video message, published on Zarif’s X and Instagram accounts, the Iranian vice-president for strategic affairs said the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), “could have been the foundation of a new era of peace, tranquility, regional cooperation, and freedom from threats, conflicts, and escalating tensions.”

“However, before too long, Netanyahu and his Zionist and extremist cohorts succeeded in their satanic effort to rob the region and the world of this historic opportunity, standing on the wrong side of history,” Zarif said. “The agreement would have ensured that the ‘wolf’ this habitual liar was always ‘crying’ about, would never come to town.”

In the video, Zarif appears as a peace-loving, compassionate politician, calling for peace and harmony, while he spent most of his career as a diplomat representing and defending the Islamic Republic's domestic authoritarian rule and aggressive, anti-Israel and anti-West policies.

Over the years, Zarif’s attempts to deny or explain away human rights violations in Iran have led to a lot of attacks by critics who say he has been whitewashing the Islamic Republic’s record. The same can be said about his defense of Tehran’s policies in the region, its role in the Syrian civil war, and support for militant groups in the region.

Back in 2022, Netanyahu called the JCPOA a “horrible agreement because it allowed Iran basically with international approval, to develop a nuclear and basically an atomic arsenal paved with gold, with hundreds of billions of dollars of sanction relief.”

Before Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in 2018, the International Atomic Energy Agency had extensive inspection powers that it used to verify Tehran’s compliance with strict enrichment limits. Since 2019, Iran has responded to US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions by boosting the nuclear program far beyond JCPOA limits, with some estimates suggesting that the country’s nuclear weapon breakout time is “just a week”.

Zarif’s Monday message seemed to be mirroring Netanyahu's years-long series of videos addressed directly to Iranians. In his latest message released last Tuesday, Netanyahu said Iran's clerical rulers fear their own people more than anything.

"There’s one thing Khamenei's regime fears more than Israel. It’s you – the people of Iran. They spend so much time and money trying to crush your hopes and curb your dreams," he added. "Don't let your dreams die. Don't lose hope and know that Israel and others in the free world stand with you.”

Zarif, who is known as the architect of the JCPOA, is defending the nuclear deal at a time when his government is expressing its willingness to resume negotiations over its nuclear program as US President-elect Trump is expected to restore his so-called maximum pressure policy against Tehran.

France, Britain, Germany, and the United States are expected to introduce a censure resolution against Iran at the upcoming meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors despite Tehran's threats to retaliate, a German foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed to Iran International on Monday.

The decision by the US and its European allies to move forward with the censure resolution comes despite Iran's threat to retaliate if such a resolution is adopted.

Iran allowed Grossi and his team to tour Fordow and Natanz, two key nuclear sites, on Friday apparently in hopes that it would convince the Board of Governors not to move forward with the censure resolution. However, that strategy does not seem to have worked.

“Iran has not fulfilled its obligations under the NPT and Safeguards Agreements. The recent visit of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to Tehran has not changed this assessment," the German foreign ministry spokesperson told Iran International.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's remarks foreshadow a harsh new policy toward the United States and Israel's shared adversaries in the likely event of his confirmation.

"They need to be suffocated and ended. There's no peace in that region until these terror groups funded by Iran are completely eliminated" Huckabee, a longtime staunch backer of the Jewish state, told Fox News in an interview.

"Why would we in any way pretend that they are going to be capable of sitting down at the table, having Kool-Aid with us and somehow we're all going to get along, toast marshmallows and sing kumbaya?" the outspoken evangelical Christian politician and broadcaster added.

"Ain't going to happen. They've got to be eliminated."

Huckabee in previous statements has said there is no such thing as an Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

In a statement, President Trump hailed Huckabee's standing among Israelis: "He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!"

Huckabee added on Monday that the current policies of President Joe Biden are harsher on US ally Israel than their Mideast allies, foremost among them Iran.

"What we've had is a schizophrenic policy toward Israel. We've put far more pressure with Joe Biden on Israel than we have on Hamas, Hezbollah, and most importantly, the people who write those checks, the Iranians."

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police informed Cotler on October 28 that he was at imminent risk of assassination within 48 hours, from two Iranian agents, according to an anonymous source speaking to the newspaper.

The veteran campaigner, who as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, launched Canada's first National Justice Initiative against Racism and Hate, has been under 24/7 protection from the RCMP since last year’s October 7 attacks in Israel by Iran-backed Hamas.

The Globe and Mail reported that The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) told him that he was a high-profile target of Iran, and as such, he was given protection including bulletproof vehicles and heavily armed officers.

Cotler, an international human-rights lawyer and parliamentarian from 1999 until 2015, has criticized Iran for its conduct in the 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, in which 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents were among the 176 people killed. The airliner was shot down as it was taking off from Tehran with two missiles fired by the IRGC air defense forces.

He has also been vocally against Tehran’s support of groups designated as terrorists be governments, including Hamas, after the October 7 attacks in Israel which killed over 1,100 mostly civilians and saw more than 250 people taken hostage to Gaza.

Dozens of such plots have been foiled around the world in the last two years, in countries including the UK, US and Europe, as Iran tries to assassinate Jewish and Israeli targets, in addition to dissidents abroad. US authorities have also accused Tehran of being behind plots to kill President-elect Donald Trump and his former top officials.

Earlier this year, Canada, which severed diplomatic ties with Iran over a decade ago, joined the US in branding Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group, as plots continue to emerge globally.

Cotler also campaigned since 2008 to have the IRGC designated a terrorist entity.

This month, in one of the highest profile cases, the US Justice Department charged Farhad Shakeri, accused of being an Iranian government asset, in connection with an alleged plot ordered by Iran’s IRGC to kill Trump.