Iran says it will use its rights to fight a multibillion-dollar US court ruling against the country for allegedly aiding in the 2001 terror attacks in the United States, denouncing the "politically-motivated verdict as a clear violation of international law."
"Issuing such an absurd and unacceptable verdict mocks not only the international legal instruments but also the survivors and families of the victims of September 11 attacks," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said Sunday, ISNA reported.
"The architects of this game are trying to distort facts and divert the path of the lawsuits and write history as they wish," he added.
On May 1, a federal judge in New York ordered Iran to pay more than $6 billion to parents, spouses, siblings and children of victims of the September 11 attacks that claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people, ABC News reported, citing court filings. The verdict faults Iran for the deaths of 1,008 people whose families sued.
The lawsuit was first filed in 2004 and allowed to go forward in 2016 after the US Congress passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, to open sovereign states accused of terrorism to liability. It alleges that Tehran provided assistance, including training, to the 9/11 hijackers even though an investigation commission found no direct evidence of Iranian support, the report said.
Political Motive
Lawmaker Kamal Deghqani-Firouzabadi, deputy chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, criticized the "political" nature of the ruling, saying it is not legally valid in Iran's view. "It is neither the first nor the last time that the United States is adopting an illegal measure," he told ICANA in remarks published Thursday.
Most of the hijackers on the planes that crashed into New York's World Trade Center were Saudi nationals, he said, referring to the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
However, the oil kingdom has mostly gotten away with the crime simply because it is a US ally and their economic interests are inextricably intertwined, the lawmaker noted, denying any Iranian involvement in the attacks. The reformist government in Tehran in 2001 strongly condemned the brutal 9/11 attacks that cut short the lives of 3,000 innocent civilians.
Saudi Role
In 2016, both the US Senate and House voted overwhelmingly in favor of JASTA, despite former president Barack Obama’s vetoing the bill out of fear it could harm US-Saudi relations and "put American interests at risk."
As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump spent much of the election campaign critiquing, denouncing and even threatening Saudi Arabia.
"Who blew up the World Trade Center?” Trump asked his pals at Fox and Friends on the morning of February 17, 2016. “It wasn’t the Iraqis, it was Saudi—take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents."
At a campaign event in South Carolina later that day, he again cited "secret papers" that could prove it was "the Saudis" who were in fact responsible for the attacks on 9/11.
“It wasn’t the Iraqis that knocked down the World Trade Center … because they have papers in there that are very secret, you may find it’s the Saudis, OK?” Trump said, according to The Intercept.
Yet as president, he has made a U-turn, advocating closer ties with Riyadh.
International Banditry
Lawmaker Valiollah Nanva-Kenari, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, says that Washington is seeking to seize Iranian assets under a "false" premise.
Describing the US court verdict as an example of "international banditry", he said, "The Americans should be aware that their ill-advised move, which carries no legal weight, will not be left without a response," ICANA reported on Friday.
The MP called on the Foreign Ministry and the judiciary to take the necessary measures to prevent the confiscation of Iranian property in the US.
