Iran's Financial Complaint Against the U.S. to Be Heard This Fall

The International Court of Justice will review Iran's case against the United States this fall, following U.S. court rulings that have blocked billions of dollars of Iranian assets. U.S. courts have ruled that Iranian assets should be paid as compensation to victims of terrorism, but Iran, unable to overturn these rulings, has taken the matter to the International Court of Justice. According to a statement from the court on Friday, sessions will be held from October 8 to 12 to hear Iran's complaint against the U.S. regarding certain Iranian assets. The statement adds that the U.S. will first present its objections, after which the judges will decide whether they can issue a ruling on the dispute. Tehran has accused the U.S. of violating a decades-old bilateral treaty established during the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi by seizing Iranian assets and those of Iranian companies. Iran claims that U.S. courts have awarded over $56 billion in damages based on allegations that Tehran was involved in certain terrorist acts. This case was opened a few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in spring 2016 that $2 billion of frozen Iranian assets should be paid to a thousand survivors and families of victims of attacks attributed to Iran. These attacks include the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, but Tehran reacted strongly to this ruling, which came a year after its nuclear agreement with world powers. During the Khobar Towers bombing, a U.S. military base was targeted, resulting in the deaths of 19 American soldiers and injuries to around 400 others.