A group of CBI experts is in the United States to discuss the issue of Iranian assets frozen in that country, a Central Bank of Iran official said Thursday.
"The funds were denominated in the greenback, but they (funds) were issued by non-US institutions… We are now in the process of investigating this. We have already sent some teams from the government to negotiate with the US. I am sure it will be settled shortly," Hossein Yaghoubi Miab, director general for CBI international affairs said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sputnik reported.
The US Supreme Court ruled in April that the nearly $2 billion in assets frozen in the country must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran.
Iran said on Wednesday it was suing the US in the International Court of Justice, accusing Washington of violating a 1955 treaty by freezing its assets.
President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday his government would pursue the court case until its rights are restored along. He denied the allegations of Iranian involvement in the Beirut bombing.
“US courts have ruled through illegitimate decrees that these assets must be put at the disposal of Americans and the families of those who were killed in Lebanon,” he said, according to IRNA. “It’s not clear what Americans were doing in Lebanon and what this issue has to do with Iran.”
