A lawmaker said he hopes the International Court of Justice will uphold impartiality in its judgment on Tehran's lawsuit over the US seizure of over $2 billion of Iranian assets and expose American lawlessness.
Seyyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, a principlist parliamentarian, made the remark in a talk with ICANA on Tuesday, referring to a Sunday announcement by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that Iran will take the US government to the ICJ in the near future.
Naqavi Hosseini warned that "the hegemonic power" may try to pressure the court to issue a politically-motivated verdict in their favor.
"We hope that the ICJ, as a judicial body, will not turn into a puppet controlled by the hegemonic powers ...and will judge fairly and restore the rights of the Iranian people," he said.
Blatant Theft
"The theft of Iranian assets is pretty obvious and our nation expects the judicial body to make a judicial decision."
Zarif said in an open session of parliament on Sunday that "the Iranian government will file a lawsuit against the US at the ICJ within the next few days to expose US lawlessness to the world."
The measure is a response to a US Supreme Court ruling that would transfer a huge amount of frozen Iranian assets to the families of US soldiers killed in a 1983 attack on their barracks in Lebanon and other attacks that US courts have linked to Tehran. Iran has denied any role in the attacks.
On April 20, the US Supreme Court ruled that the US Congress did not usurp the authority of American courts by passing a 2012 law stating that the frozen funds should go toward satisfying a $2.65 billion judgment won by the families against Iran in US federal court in 2007.
The money confiscated under the US court order belongs to the Central Bank of Iran and had been blocked under US sanctions.
Iranian officials have described the anti-Iran move a "highway robbery" that violates Iran's state immunity and vowed to confront Washington's "bullying" and retrieve the money.
Canada Follows Suit
Following in the footsteps of the US, a court in Canada recently issued a verdict giving $13 million of Iran's assets to the families of Canadians who died in several attacks around the word that they blamed on Iran.
The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial wing of the United Nations. Seated in The Hague, Netherlands, the court settles legal disputes submitted to it by states and provides advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by duly authorized international branches, agencies and the UN General Assembly.
