TEHRAN, Iran — A court in Tehran has directed the United States government to pay $330 million in damages for allegedly planning a failed coup against the Iranian government in 1980.
This ruling comes amidst a long history of fraught relations between Iran and the United States, which have not had diplomatic ties since the aftermath of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Historical Context
A year after the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah, a group mostly comprising army officers attempted to overthrow the newly established Iranian government.
According to state-run news agency IRNA on Saturday, August 26, 2023, the coup plotters were led by Saeed Mahdiyoun, a former Iranian air force commander.
They operated from Nojeh, an airbase located in the western province of Hamedan.
Several people died in the ensuing clashes between the coup participants and government forces, and many more were arrested.
“Their objective was to seize control of military bases across the country and target strategic centers and residences of the revolution’s leaders. However, their efforts were thwarted,” IRNA stated.
The Lawsuit
Last year, family members of those killed during the attempted coup filed a petition with Iran’s International Court, demanding reparations and accusing the United States of “planning and executing” the coup.
The Tehran court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, instructing the U.S. to pay “$30 million in material and moral damages, and $300 million in punitive damages.”
Lingering Tensions
The U.S.-Iran relationship has been fraught since 1953, when the U.S. and British intelligence orchestrated the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized Iran’s oil industry.
In 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that frozen Iranian assets in the United States should be disbursed to victims of attacks Washington blames on Tehran, including the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and a 1996 explosion in Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice stated that the U.S. freezing of Iranian assets was “manifestly unreasonable” but added that it had no jurisdiction to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in Iranian central bank assets.
It remains to be seen how or if the U.S. will respond to the Tehran court’s latest judgment, especially given the long-standing diplomatic estrangement and the highly sensitive nature of relations between the two countries.
