According to a report from CNN, the U.S. Federal Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 21st, upheld a previous ruling by American courts ordering the payment of approximately two billion dollars in compensation from Iran’s seized assets in the United States to families of victims of terrorist attacks for which Iran has been held responsible.
In a 6-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in this case, effectively rejecting Iranian lawyers’ claims that Congress’s decision was unconstitutional when it upheld the 2012 court ruling ordering payment of $2.65 billion in compensation to survivors of terror attack victims who filed lawsuits in 2007.
These complaints include, in addition to the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, which resulted in the deaths of 241 Americans, the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the September 11th terrorist attacks, and other terrorist attacks for which Iran has been accused of providing financial resources or facilitating their execution.
Today’s Supreme Court ruling comes as Iran and the United States have recently begun discussions regarding the implementation of the comprehensive nuclear agreement reached last summer and Tehran’s dissatisfaction with Iran’s lack of access to the international financial system due to remaining Washington sanctions.
Most recently, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in New York on Tuesday and discussed this matter. Both sides announced that they will continue their talks on Friday.
Multiple laws have been passed in Congress over recent years to facilitate receiving compensation, which has produced no practical results for victims’ families. However, the 2012 law known as the “Iran Threat Reduction Act” specifically orders courts to pay compensation to victims’ families from Iran’s seized assets.
Based on an agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the U.S. government has thus far prevented the payment of compensation to families of American victims of these terrorist attacks from Iran’s seized assets.
Iran objected to the 2014 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals ordering the payment of this amount to the plaintiffs from Iran’s Central Bank’s seized assets in an account at Citibank, describing it as “illegal.”
Iran’s Central Bank’s seized assets at Citibank have been reported to amount to approximately $1.75 billion.
