Iran to take legal actions to retake US-seized assets

Iran's First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri said that his country will harness every legal channel to retake the impounded assets subject to a US court ruling, Press TV reported on Sunday.

"The Iranian administration will definitely use all legal means to regain the assets, and the US knows that we can do that," Jahangiri was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court ruled the transfer of nearly $2 billion to the American victims of terrorist attacks, including the 1983 truck bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

Investigators of the court concluded that Iran was responsible for that attack, which Iran has denied.

Jahangiri said the US court's decision amounted to "stealing" the funds of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) which had mainly been kept in European banks.

The US carried out such a measure under a baseless excuse and accusations against Iran, he added.

Iran's foreign minister has denounced the recent US ruling which allows the families of American victims of terrorist attacks to recover damages from Iran's frozen assets in the US banks.

Also, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry Hossein Jaber Ansari said in a statement that the "US court ruling has mocked (international) law," and "amounts to appropriation of the Islamic Republic of Iran's property in the United States."

The assets belong to the Central Bank of Iran, which have been blocked under the US sanctions.

--IANS

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