TALLAHASSEE — Gov. will call state lawmakers back to Tallahassee to pass further sanctions against Iran in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel this month.
Florida will pass “the strongest sanctions against Iran by any state in the nation,” DeSantis Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern said in a statement Friday.
The details, including the legislation and the timing, has not been determined, Redfern said.
“We look forward to working with the legislature to show Florida’s continued support for Israel,” he added.
In the last week, Florida has partnered with Project Dynamo, a Tampa-based nonprofit that specializes in bringing U.S. citizens home from conflict zones around the world, to fly hundreds of Americans from Israel to Tampa.
Project Dynamo co-founder Bryan Stern told reporters earlier this week that the nonprofit has been in charge of most of the logistics on the ground and that Florida has helped by covering the cost of air travel.
The DeSantis administration has been mum on the details about the cost of the taxpayer-funded operation, which is estimated to be priced out at millions of dollars.
It is also unclear how the administration vetted the organization, which has been criticized by U.S. government officials for being too willing to take risks that other nonprofits would not.
Iran is a longtime ally of Hamas, supplying the organization with military support, but the country’s role in the Oct. 7 attack is unclear. Officials in Tehran have denied involvement in the attack, but have praised Hamas. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States has so far found no evidence Iran was directly involved.
Iran is already one of seven “countries of concern” designated by Florida officials, which prohibits the state from investing in companies linked to those nations and places limits on foreign nationals owning land. The other countries are China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela.