TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US State Department Spokesman Mark Toner said a recent decision by the US Supreme Court to seize frozen Iranian assets in an American bank is not in violation of international law.





"To the extent that this letter was prompted by the recent Supreme Court decision in the Bank Markazi (Central Bank of Iran) v. Peterson case, we believe the US laws and the application of those laws by the courts ... comport with international law," Toner said during a press briefing on Friday, the official website of US Department of State reported.

Earlier, the Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the ruling by the US Supreme Court and said it “contradicts the basic principles of the international laws”.

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court upheld the Congress and President Barack Obama’s actions to hold Iran financially responsible for the 1983 bombing that killed 241 Marines at their barracks in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

The ruling allows the families of the Marines and victims of other attacks that 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 (CBI), which has been blocked under US sanctions.

In 2012, the US Congress passed a law that specifically directed the American banks to turn over the Iranian assets to victims’ families. Obama also entered the battle in an effort to force the payments on Iran.

By Tasnim News Agency