The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by Iran's central bank against a $1.75 billion judgment over a 1983 bomb attack on a U.S. Marines barracks in Lebanon.
The appeal by Bank Markazi aims to overturn a July 2014 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which ordered the Iranian central bank to make payments to relatives of U.S. troops who were killed by the attack.
The funds, currently held in a trust account, were uncovered in 2010 by the U.S. Treasury Department at Citibank in New York.
The 2nd Circuit Court ruled that the funds should be handed over as part of a $2.65 billion U.S. court judgment against Iran in 2007.
That ruling said Tehran provided material support to Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi'ite militant group responsible for the October 1983 truck bomb attack at the Marine compound in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen.
President Ronald Reagan dispatched U.S. Marines to Lebanon in 1982 on a peacekeeping mission to try to stabilize the war-torn nation following an Israeli invasion.