Head of the Center for Strategic Research of Iran’s Expediency Council Ali Akbar Velayati deplored the US decision to seize nearly $2 billion of the Central Bank of Iran’s assets in an American bank, describing the move as an indication of Washington’s “bullying” approach. “The US government’s move to seize $2 billion of Iran’s blocked assets is totally condemned,” Velayati, who is also a top adviser to the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, told Tasnim News Agency on Monday. “It is indicative of the bullying approach of the Americans and their hypocrisy in the international arena.”
Velayati denounced Washington’s duplicity in talks with Tehran and US delegations’ anti-Iran remarks in meetings with their allies in the region. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court upheld a ruling that allows the families of the US Marines killed in the 1983 bombing of their barracks in Beirut and victims of other attacks that US courts have linked to Iran to seize some $2 billion in assets held in New York’s Citibank, belonging to the Central Bank of Iran, which have been blocked under US sanctions.
