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Iran parliament votes to fast-track US compensation bill

A view of Iran's parliament (Majlis) in session. ©Tasnimnewsagency

The Iranian parliament (Majlis) has voted to fast-track debating a bill that would obligate the government to claim compensation from the United States for its hostile actions against Iran.

Some 181 lawmakers, out of the 216 present in the Sunday session, voted in favor of urgent deliberations on the bill that would compel the Islamic Republic’s government to seek damages from Washington in compensation for its hostile acts against Iran.

The cases include the US involvement in the 1953 coup against the government of then democratically-elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. The coup consolidated the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, then Shah of Iran, for 26 more years and guaranteed the West’s oil interests in Iran.

The bill also requires the government to seek compensation from the US for its support for Iraq’s Saddam Hussain during his invasion of Iran in the 1980s.

Under the proposed bill, Washington should also pay for damage it inflicted on the Islamic Republic by dipping into Iran's assets frozen in the US banks. Tehran would be also obliged to claim compensation from the US for supporting or contributing to the Israeli regime’s anti-Iran measures.

The bill further requires the government to take legal action against Washington if it fails to deliver on its promises to Iran.

The development comes in reaction to the US Supreme Court's decision in April to seize about $2 billion in frozen assets of Iran.

The US court ruled that the money had to be turned over to the American families of the people killed in a 1983 bombing in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran.

Iran has denied any role in the attack, and the money confiscated under the US court ruling belongs to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI). The assets have been blocked under US sanctions.

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with The New Yorker that the move “is a theft. Huge theft. It is highway robbery. And believe me, we will get it back.”


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