Iran urges UN to push Washington to release Iran's assets

In a letter to the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Iran's foreign minister said that his country will take "every lawful measure" against a court ruling that allows the seizure of parts of Iran's assets in the United States, Press TV reported on Friday.

Iran reserves the right to respond to the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in the letter on Thursday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran holds the United States government responsible for this outrageous robbery, disguised under a court order, and is determined to take every lawful measure to restore the stolen property," the letter was cited as reading.

Zarif urged the UN chief to press Washington to release all frozen Iranian assets in the U.S. banks.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the transfer of nearly two billion U.S. dollars to the American victims of terrorist attacks, including the 1983 truck bombing of a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

Investigators of the court concluded that Iran was responsible for that attack, which Iran has denied.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari has said that "the U.S. court ruling has mocked (international) law," and "amounts to appropriation of the Islamic Republic of Iran's property in the United States."

The assets belong to the Central Bank of Iran, which have been blocked under the U.S. sanctions.

Source: XINHUA