Iran Threatens to Sue US in the Hague for ‘Hostile Moves’

Iranian lawmakers are moving closer to approving a lawsuit against the United States to seek compensation for damage inflicted by Washington’s “hostile moves over the past 63 years”.

On Wednesday, 181 of the 290 Iranian lawmakers voted in favor of a bill that would pave the way for the government to take legal action against the U.S. in an international court for actins dating back to the 1953 coup in Iran.

The move comes just a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that nearly $2 billion of Iran’s frozen assets be given to American families of the victims of a 1983 bombing in Beirut and other attacks.

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It also comes after the release of documents declassified in April 2013 detailed the alleged CIA-orchestrated ouster of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh 60 years ago.

Analysts say the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision is set to affect Washington’s nascent ties with Iran at a time when the U.S. seeks to keep a balance between its strong alliance with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional rival, and the government in Tehran, which aims to recover economically after years of UN-backed sanctions due to its controversial nuclear program.

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Speaking to a crowd in the southeastern city of Kerman, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said: “The government will never allow for the money that belongs to the Iranian nation be easily gobbled up by the Americans.” He further said Iran would “take this case to the International Court [of Justice] in the near future and will not spare any effort towards the restoration of the nation’s rights through legal, political and banking channels.”

Legal actions would include demands for compensation for the moral and material damage the country suffered during its 1980-1988 war with U.S.-backed Iraq, which claimed the lives of 223,000 Iranian soldiers, as well as the 1988 downing of an Iranian A00 airliner by a U.S. missile cruiser.

By James Burgess of Oilprice.com

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