10/7 Attack Highlights Need to Sanction Iran-Backed Terrorists

Iran and Hezbollah have been supportive of, complicit in, and/or participants in the war against Israel launched on October 7 with Hamas’s savage attack against Israel. Iranian proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon has continually attacked Israeli civilian and military targets. In addition, reports have emerged alleging Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) involvement in Hamas’s attack.

The United States, together with Israel, has already designated all three groups—Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC—as terrorist organizations. Indeed, the U.S. Treasury Department just announced on November 29 sanctions on more than 20 individuals and entities for working to facilitate funding to Iranian entities including the IRGC. Yet, Washington and Jerusalem are alone in considering all three of these groups as terrorist organizations, according to a JINSA review of 32 major countries and three international organizations. To increase international pressure on Iran and its terrorist proxies, the United States should push other countries, particularly its NATO allies and Japan, to label Hamas, Hezbollah, and the IRGC in their entirety as terrorist organizations.