An Iranian court on Wednesday ordered the United States government to pay more than $1 billion in fines for terror strikes that Tehran now says were American-ordered.
The court determined "the U.S. government as well as some American officials and institutions must pay $312,950,000 in damages" to the families of those killed in a 2017 terror strike on Iran’s parliament and a popular holy site. The court "also set $9,950,000 for material damages, $104 million for moral damages caused to the plaintiffs, and $199 million for punitive damages," according to Iran’s state-controlled press.
Iran is blaming the United States for a spate of attacks that are known to have been carried out by the Islamic State, a rival terror organization that is at odds with Iran’s clerical regime. Iranian officials claim the American government is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and is chiefly responsible for the 2017 attack that killed 17 and wounded 50 others.
The judgment is likely payback for the U.S. government’s 2021 seizure of around $7 million in Iranian assets, which were paid out to the victims of Tehran’s terrorism enterprise. The United States also successfully petitioned the International Court of Justice in March to toss a case that would have barred further payments from Iranian coffers.
Iran’s countersuit names former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, former U.S. general Tommy Franks, the CIA, U.S. Central Command, and the Treasury Department as defendants. Lockheed Martin and American Airlines also are named in the suit.