SEPTEMBER 14, 2015, 10:40 PM LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2015, 7:11 AM
BY MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
It is considered a footnote in the contentious debate over the Iran nuclear deal.
But for the families of several New Jersey residents who were killed years ago in Iran-sponsored attacks, the deal’s promised return to Iran of billions of dollars in assets that were frozen years ago is nothing less than a blow to the war on terror.
Estimates of the amount of money in play range from $50 billion to about $150 billon, with opponents of the deal more likely to cite a higher figure. Many victims’ families looked to the frozen funds as a potential target — if an elusive one — to collect in court judgments against Iran for its role in planning terrorist attacks dating to the 1980s.
Supporters of the deal, however, say that the attempt by victims of terrorism to tap into the frozen assets is misguided and a back-door attempt to derail implementation of the accord, which the Obama administration says will prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. Much of the money is already committed to paying other bills in Iran’s oil trade with Asian and European nations.
Regardless, the fate of the money has emerged as a dividing point in the debate over the deal — and future dealings with Iran.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Stephen Flatow of West Orange, whose 20-year-old daughter, Alisa, was killed in an Iranian-financed bus bombing in the Gaza Strip in 1995.
That event sparked Flatow’s nearly two-decade court battle to punish Iran by tapping into its financial holdings in America and across the world.
Along with Flatow, the families of American victims killed in dozens of terror attacks across the Middle East may lose out on the chance to collect as much as $20 billion in outstanding court judgments if Iran is able to recover all of its financial holdings that were frozen under international economic sanctions, some of which were imposed as punishment for those terrorist activities.
“This is about bills owed, payment owed,” said Arline Duker of Teaneck, whose 22-year-old daughter, Sara, was killed in another Iran-backed bus bombing in Jerusalem in 1996. Duker later followed Flatow in filing a lawsuit against Iran.
“These are not about new sanctions,” she said “This is about payment of a debt. The whole idea is for Iran to acknowledge what it did.”
The debate over Iran’s leading role in sponsoring terrorism dates back decades to a period when Iranian-backed terrorist proxies such as the Hezbollah group in Lebanon and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank regularly attacked U.S. targets.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/kelly-nuclear-deal-angers-families-of-iran-terror-victims-1.1409790
