According to FCNN, on Wednesday, May 1, the US Supreme Court upheld a previous ruling by the country's courts to pay approximately $2 billion in compensation from Iranian assets seized in the United States to the families of victims of terrorist attacks for which Iran was found responsible.
The 6-2 decision of the US Supreme Court justices in this case is, in fact, a rejection of the claim of Iranian lawyers that Congress' decision to uphold the 2012 US court ruling to pay $2.65 billion in compensation to the survivors of the victims of the terrorist attacks, who had filed a lawsuit in 2007, was illegal.
In addition to the 1983 bombing of the US Marine Corps base in Beirut that killed 241 Americans, these complaints include the 1996 bombing of the news towers in Saudi Arabia, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and other terrorist attacks in which Iran is accused of financing or facilitating those attacks.
Today's Supreme Court ruling comes as Iran and the United States have begun talks in recent days about the implementation of the comprehensive nuclear deal signed last summer and Tehran's dissatisfaction with Iran's lack of access to the international financial system due to remaining Washington sanctions.
In the latest case, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York on Tuesday to discuss the issue. The two sides announced that they would meet again on Friday to continue their talks.
Several laws have been passed in the US Congress over the years to facilitate compensation, but they have had no practical effect on the victims' families. However, the 2012 law, known as the "Iran Threat Reduction Act," specifically orders the court to pay compensation to the victims' families from seized Iranian assets.
Based on an agreement it had with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United States government has so far prevented the payment of fines to the families of American victims of these terrorist attacks from seized Iranian assets.
Iran had objected to the New York Court of Appeals' ruling in 2014 that the amount be paid to the plaintiffs from the confiscated assets of the Central Bank of Iran in an account at Citibank, describing it as "illegal."
The Central Bank of Iran's seized assets at Citibank are reported to be worth $1.75 billion.
