Tehran slams US court ruling to award Iran money to bomb victims

Tehran: Iranian on Thursday strongly condemned US Supreme Court on the ruling obliging Iran to pay almost $2-billion in frozen assets to US families as compensation, Iran's IRNA news agency reported. In a statement issued by Iranian Foreign Ministry, Hossein Jaberi Ansari described such verdict as "theft", saying the US verdict contradicts the principles and basics of the international rights. Furthermore, this verdict shows that the US government is still under the influence of the Zionist circles, and it only increases the intense mistrust of the Iranian government and nation towards the hostile policies of the US, it said. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court ruled that almost two billion dollars in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to Americans killed in the 1983 bombing of a US Marine Corps barracks in the Lebanese capital of Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran. The assets belong to the Central Bank of Iran, which has been blocked under US sanctions.