Iran Does Not Recognize Seizure of Assets by US: Senior Diplomat
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A top Iranian diplomat deplored the US decision to seize the Central Bank of Iran’s assets in an American bank, saying Tehran reserves the right to take any necessary legal action for reimbursement.
Hamid Baeidinejad, the director general for political and international affairs at Iran’s foreign ministry, wrote a note on Saturday, after the US Supreme Court upheld the Congress and President Barack Obama’s actions to hold Iran financially responsible for the 1983 bombing that killed 241 Marines at their barracks in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The ruling allows the families of the Marines and victims of other attacks that courts have linked to Iran to seize some $2 billion in assets held in New York’s Citibank, belonging to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), which has been blocked under US sanctions.
In his note, Baeidinejad underlined that Iran will “by no means” recognize the US move, and reserves the right to get its money back through any legal and international procedure.
The diplomat further criticized the previous Iranian administration, under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for purchasing US government bonds when a number of cases were being filed against Iran in the US and the CBI’s assets in the American banks were under constant threat of being seized.
He also criticized the ex-cabinet for imprudence and lack of action to pull out the country’s financial resources in the US.
In 2012, the US Congress passed a law that specifically directed the American bank to turn over the Iranian assets to victims’ families. Obama also entered the battle in an effort to force the payments on Iran.
