Terrorist victims’ families sue to block Obama’s deal with Iranian jihadists

Following President Barack Obama’s televised speech on Wednesday defending his and Secretary of State John Kerry’s nuclear agreement with Iran, angry family members of U.S. citizens who have been victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism and violence said on Wednesday that they will do all that’s humanly possible to block the part of the deal that lifts economic sanctions on the Iranian government. Part of the deal that Obama is pushing against stiff bipartisan opposition is the listing of sanctions and the release of billions of dollars to Iran.
The families of those killed directly or indirectly had filed federal lawsuit to stop frozen assets, to which they have a legitimate claim, from being released to the Islamic Republic. The original lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, with about two-dozen plaintiffs who claimed they are owed hundreds of millions of dollars in damages by Iran. However, they are now bashing Obama saying they won’t receive their legally-obtained funds which ad been frozen by the U.S. because of his “legacy.”
“It would be outrageous to release the $100 billion in frozen Iranian funds when these American families have unpaid court judgments against the terror sponsoring regime in Tehran” stated Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.
“For more than a decade Iran has refused to pay these court judgments and has thumbed its nose at these terror-victim families and the U.S. court system. The $100 billion in frozen funds is the last leverage the families have to compel Iran to satisfy their judgments. If you release these funds you erase all hope for the families of ever getting a measure of justice against this outlaw regime,” Darshan-Leitner said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The U.S. encouraged these families, grievously harmed by terrorism, to file suit against Iran and now the government has a moral duty to assist them in collecting on their judgments. To release the funds instead of turning them over to the victims would make a farce out of this hard fought legal process,” he added.
The family members are seeking to stop the Obama administration from unfreezing the assets until Iran pays nearly $2 billion in penalties to the family members. They also want Iran to pledge it will stop sponsoring terrorism through their Islamist proxies such as Hezbollah
The lawsuit also names the U.S. State and Treasury Departments as well as Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew as respondents. Iranian Supreme Leader
Khamenei is not likely to pay judgments to terror victims, say families who sued Kerry, seeking to stop the unfreezing of the funds in question. Darshan-Leitner claims that justice for these families who suffered greatly will not be done if Iran recoups its frozen funds and ignores U.S. federal courts.
“During President Obama’s Wednesday “lecture,” I could not believe he likened Republicans to the hard-line Iranians. His whole premise on its face was mean-spirited and totally wrong. The Democrats are the ones who have sided with Islamists time and time again.