Iran Announces Filing Complaint Against the U.S. for Seizing Two Billion Dollars of Its Assets

Iran's official news agency reports that the International Law Center of the Iranian Presidency registered a detailed complaint against the United States for the seizure of two billion dollars of Iranian assets on February 1, 2018, at the International Court of Justice. According to IRNA, this complaint consists of two thousand pages and is prepared in four volumes. Earlier this year, in June, the Iranian government had filed a complaint against the U.S. at the International Court of Justice due to the confiscation of approximately two billion dollars from the Central Bank's assets. In the detailed complaint, Iran cites the bilateral agreement known as the 'Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights' signed in 1955, stating that the U.S. action constitutes a 'violation' of this treaty. The 'Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights' was signed in 1955 between Iran and the U.S., and despite the severance of relations between the two countries, both parties refer to it in international courts. Iran's reference to this treaty comes at a time when some courts in the Islamic Republic have previously referred to the U.S. government as a 'hostile state.' According to IRNA, the U.S. government must submit its defense statement to the International Court of Justice by September 1, 2017, and the court will issue its ruling after holding a session and hearing oral arguments from both sides. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 20 that two billion dollars of Iran's frozen assets must be paid to the families of American victims of the 1983 bombings at the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and other attacks related to Iran. President Hassan Rouhani's government formed a special task force in mid-April to investigate this issue and provide necessary solutions for recovering Iran's assets. This task force accused former government officials in a report on May 17 of failing to take 'effective action' to remove Iran's assets from the reach of the U.S. judicial system, despite U.S. sanctions, court rulings, and 'warnings from foreign sources, relevant domestic centers, and high authorities.' The task force noted that despite the fact that it became clear after 2007 that the purchased bonds were 'at risk,' the Central Bank 'sold only a small portion of them' despite numerous warnings and merely transferred the bonds from one account to another in 2008. The office of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, without denying the purchase of these bonds during his administration, attributed the seizure of two billion dollars of Iran's assets to the 'weakness' of Hassan Rouhani's government in the international arena and the 'audacity' of American officials. In this regard, Ahmadinejad's statement responded to the accusation regarding the seizure of two billion dollars of Iran's money. Rouhani criticized the seizure of two billion dollars of Iran's assets in the U.S. and stated that the people would become aware of the negligence of past officials in the two billion dollar case. The government's task force emphasized judicial action regarding 'negligence in asset seizure.' Iran officially complained to the U.S. over the seizure of two billion dollars of its assets. U.S. courts have issued rulings against Iran amounting to '56 billion dollars.' Rouhani called for action against 'the negligence in removing Iran's assets from the reach of the U.S.'