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‘Sham Charity’: US, Canada Sanction Anti-Israel Samidoun Network as Fundraiser for Palestinian Terror Group
Anti-Israel protesters demonstrate in front of Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, New Jersey, US, on March 10, 2024. Photo: Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
The US and Canada announced on Tuesday that they jointly imposed sanctions on Samidoun, explaining that the prominent anti-Israel group has been operating as a “sham charity” fundraising for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist group.
“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,” Bradley Smith, the US Treasury Department’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. “The United States, together with Canada and our like-minded partners, will continue to disrupt those who seek to finance the PFLP, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations.”
The US Treasury Department said in its announcement that the PFLP “uses Samidoun to maintain fundraising operations in both Europe and North America” and that it was also “designating” Khaled Barakat, a member of both Samidoun and the PFLP’s leadership.
“Together, Samidoun and Barakat play critical roles in external fundraising for the PFLP,” the department said.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government in a coordinated effort listed Samidoun as a terrorist entity under its Criminal Code.
“Canada remains committed to working with our key partners and allies, like the United States, to counter terrorist organizations and their fundraisers,” Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement. “Today’s joint action with the US sends a strong message that our two nations will not tolerate this type of activity and will do everything in our power to ensure robust measures are in place to address terrorist financing.”
Samidoun, which identifies itself as a “Palestinian prisoner solidarity network,” is a radical anti-Israel advocacy organization that has taken part in pro-Hamas protests across the West, including in the US, Canada, and countries in Europe.
Germany banned Samidoun, whose demonstrations in Berlin have featured cries of “Death to the Jews,” in the days following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7.
Samidoun previously described the Oct. 7 atrocities as an act of “heroic Palestinian resistance” and recently hosted a webinar for a Hamas official who pledged that the Palestinian terrorist organization will repeat its slaughter of Israelis “again and again” to bring about the Jewish state’s “annihilation.”
However, Samidoun, which is based in Vancouver, Canada, purports to organize demonstrations, organize campaigns, and provide resources that inform the public on the supposed plight of Palestinian prisoners.
“We work to raise awareness and provide resources about Palestinian political prisoners, their conditions, their demands, and their work for freedom for themselves, their fellow prisoners, and their homeland,” the group claims on is website.
The PFLP gained prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s for pioneering armed hijackings of airplanes and has also been involved in suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations. For decades, the group has attacked Israeli and other Western targets. Just last year, the PFLP posted pictures and videos online showing its participation in and support of the Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.
Samidoun and Barakat were sanctioned on Tuesday for “being owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the PFLP,” according t the US Treasury Department.
As a result, any property or other entities they may own or have interest in, directly or indirectly, that are in the US or in the possession or control of Americans are “blocked” and must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The sanctions also prohibit Samidoun and Barakat from engaging in any property-related transactions with people or entities located or incorporated in the US.
The post ‘Sham Charity’: US, Canada Sanction Anti-Israel Samidoun Network as Fundraiser for Palestinian Terror Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s Foreign Minister in Washington, a First in 25 Years
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani speaks during a press conference in Moscow, Russia, July 31, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool
Syria’s foreign minister arrived in Washington on Thursday, the first official visit at that level in more than 25 years as the US makes a pro-Damascus policy push, lifting sanctions and mediating between the new Islamist rulers and Israel.
Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani will meet US lawmakers to discuss the lifting of remaining US sanctions on his country, Senator Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying by Axios. Two sources familiar with the trip confirmed the visit to Reuters.
It comes after some senior US diplomats focused on Syria were abruptly let go from their posts amid Washington‘s pivot, as the US seeks to integrate its longtime Syrian Kurdish allies with the central administration of President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The United States has also been mediating between Israel and Syria. Sharaa, who is due to visit New York next week for the UN General Assembly, said negotiations to reach a security pact with Israel could yield results “in the coming days.”
The United States had placed crippling sanctions on Syria since 2011 after former President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran and Russia, cracked down protests against him that triggered an almost 14-year civil war.
After he was toppled by Sharaa’s forces in a quick sweep in December, Washington and Damascus have been working to warm up ties, with US President Donald Trump announcing that he would move to lift the sanctions after meeting Sharaa in May.
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Saudi Arabia, Nuclear-Armed Pakistan Sign Mutual Defense Pact
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif embrace each other on the day they sign a defense agreement, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 17, 2025. Photo: Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
Saudi Arabia and nuclear–armed Pakistan signed a mutual defence pact late on Wednesday, significantly strengthening a decades-old security partnership a week after Israel’s strikes on Qatar upended the diplomatic calculus in the region.
The enhanced defense ties come as Gulf Arab states grow increasingly wary about the reliability of the United States as a security guarantor.
Asked whether Pakistan would now be obliged to provide Saudi Arabia with a nuclear umbrella, a senior Saudi official told Reuters: “This is a comprehensive defensive agreement that encompasses all military means.”
Pakistan is the only nuclear–armed, Muslim-majority nation, and also fields the Islamic world’s largest army, which it has regularly said is focused on facing down neighboring foe India.
The agreement was the culmination of years of discussions, the Saudi official said when asked about the timing of the deal. “This is not a response to specific countries or specific events but an institutionalization of long-standing and deep cooperation between our two countries,” the official added.
Israel’s attempt on Sept. 9 to kill the political leaders of Hamas with airstrikes on Doha, while they were discussing a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza that Qatar is helping to mediate, infuriated Arab countries.
Before the Gaza war, Gulf monarchies – US allies – had sought to stabilize ties with both Iran and Israel to resolve longstanding security concerns. Over the past year, Qatar has been subjected to direct hits twice, once by Iran and once by Israel.
Israel is widely understood to possess a sizeable nuclear arsenal but maintains a policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying possessing such weapons.
Pakistan had said its nuclear weapons are only aimed, as a deterrent, against India, and its missiles are designed with a range to hit anywhere to its east in India.
NUCLEAR UMBRELLA
Pakistani state television showed Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, embracing after signing the agreement. Also there was Pakistan‘s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, regarded as the country’s most powerful person.
“The agreement states that any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both,” a statement from the Pakistani prime minister’s office said.
Pakistan‘s decades-old alliance with Saudi Arabia – the site of Islam’s holiest sites – is rooted in shared faith, strategic interests and economic interdependence.
Pakistan has long had soldiers deployed in Saudi Arabia, currently estimated at between 1,500 and 2,000 troops, providing operational, technical and training help to the Saudi military. That includes assistance to the Saudi air and land forces.
Saudi Arabia has loaned Pakistan $3 billion, a deal extended in December, to shore up its foreign exchange reserves.
The Saudi deal comes months after Pakistan fought a brief military conflict with India in May.
India’s ministry of external affairs spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X on Thursday that India was aware of the development, and that it would study its implications for New Delhi’s security and for regional stability.
The senior Saudi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, acknowledged the need to balance relations with Pakistan and India, also a nuclear power.
“Our relationship with India is more robust than it has ever been. We will continue to grow this relationship and seek to contribute to regional peace whichever way we can.”
Pakistan and India fought three major wars since the two countries were carved out of British colonial India in 1947.
After they both acquired nuclear weapons in the late 1990s, their conflicts have been more limited in scale because of the danger of nuclear assets coming into play.
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UN Sanctions on Iran to Be Reimposed, France’s Macron Says
French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Pool
European powers will likely reimpose international sanctions on Iran by the end of the month after their latest round of talks with Tehran aimed at preventing them were deemed not serious, France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.
Britain, France, and Germany, the so-called E3, launched a 30-day process at the end of August to reimpose UN sanctions. They set conditions for Tehran to meet during September to convince them to delay the “snapback mechanism.”
The offer by the E3 to put off the snapback for up to six months to enable serious negotiations is conditional on Iran restoring access for UN nuclear inspectors – who would also seek to account for Iran‘s large stock of enriched uranium – and engaging in talks with the US.
When asked in an interview on Israel’s Channel 12 whether the snapback was a done deal, Macron said:
“Yes. I think so because the latest news from the Iranians is not serious.”
E3 foreign ministers, the European Union foreign policy chief, and their Iranian counterpart held a phone call on Wednesday, in which diplomats on both sides said there had been no substantial progress, though the door was still open to try and reach a deal before the deadline expired.
The 15-member UN Security Council will vote on Friday on a resolution that would permanently lift UN sanctions on Iran – a move it is required to take after the E3 launched the process.
The resolution is likely to fail to get the minimum nine votes needed to pass, say diplomats, and if it did it would be vetoed by the United States, Britain, or France.