A senior lawmaker said the baseless ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States authorizing the seizure of about $2 billion of Iran's frozen assets in the US is a serious threat to international law.
"The US must know that as it has experienced the bitter taste of defeat in all areas of confrontation against the Islamic Republic of Iran, it will experience a heavy defeat in this area as well," Deputy Parliament Speaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabifard said on Sunday, Press TV reported.
He said the great Iranian nation will strongly confront Washington's illegal move and restore its rights in the best possible way.
The US congressmen and some other statesmen think that they are living in the "Stone Age" and that they can confiscate other nations' interests on the strength of their military power to serve their own "illegitimate" interests, the parliamentarian said.
On April 20, the US Supreme Court ruled that about $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets must be turned over to American families of people killed in the 1983 bombing of a US Marine Corps barracks in the Lebanese capital Beirut and other attacks blamed on Iran. The Islamic Republic has denied any role in the attacks.
The money confiscated under the US court ruling belongs to the Central Bank of Iran. The assets have been blocked under US sanctions.
On April 28, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, saying Tehran reserves the right to take countermeasures in response to the decision made by the court.
The foreign minister called on the UN chief to use his "good offices" to press Washington to release Iran's frozen assets in US banks in line with the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and six global powers last year.
