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Rouhani Threatens to Take the U.S. to International Court over Terror Victims’ Payout | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attends a session of Supreme Health Council, in Tehran February 22, 2016, Reuters


Tehran- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivered a speech on Tuesday on national television, in live broadcast, during which he mentioned that Iran will be filing a lawsuit against Washington before international courts for the expropriation of two billion dollars of Iranian deposits which are frozen in U.S. banks.

Speaking to an audience of thousands in Kerman, the Iranian capital city of Kerman Province, Rouhani did not hesitate announcing that the Iran will file a two-billion-dollar complaint to international courts. “We will not allow the U.S. to take over the money easily,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court, last April, decided on Iran paying two billion dollars in compensations for terrorist attacks that would be cut off from Iranian frozen assets in the U.S.

Compensation shall go for the families of over one thousand American victims killed by attacks plotted and/or backed by Tehran, according to the plaintiffs.

Among the attacks are the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, which targeted housing accommodations of the United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF)—killing 241 U.S. and 58 French servicemen, six civilians, and the two suicide bombers. The compensations were also on behalf of the victims who were killed during the Khobar Towers bombing, 1996, which targeted an eight-storey structure housing members of the United States Air Force.

Rouhani had previously commented on the subject calling it both a theft in broad daylight and a great shame to the U.S. judiciary system.

“It is a completely illegitimate action, violates international law, humanity and the immunity of central banks,” said Rouhani.

“It is a clear desecration and assault by the U.S. against the people of Iran, which will have its own consequences,” he added.

The Supreme Court’s decision came for the period of sensitivity looming over U.S.-Iranian diplomatic affairs, and only ten months after signing the nuclear deal in Vienna.

On a different level, Rouhani strongly defended the regional role played by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

“The IRGC, today, not only holds the responsibility of guaranteeing national security alongside the army, police and Basij forces (IRGC affiliated militia), but also the security of countries which request our help,” said Rouhani.

“Defending our holy sites in Iraq and Syria, defending the weak in Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan and anywhere else which requires our aid,” he went on saying.

Rouhani lauded the roles of the Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, considering them both a pride to the Iranian administration.

Only days after a large number of IRGC and Quds Force troops were killed in Khan Touman, a town located in Aleppo, Syria; Rouhani said “we now look across Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine and we see the marks of the bravery of General Soleimani.”

According to ISNA, Iran based news agency, Defense Minister IRGC Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, on Tuesday, said that the IRGC defense has recently been equipped with Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems.