Iran has denounced as "theft" a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Tehran must pay nearly $2 billion in frozen assets to victims and families of those killed in Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks.
The court on April 20 ruled 6-2 in favor of relatives of the 241 Marines who died in a 1983 terrorist attack in Beirut and victims of other attacks that U.S. courts have linked to the Islamic republic.
"This is totally rejected. It is theft ... it is like stealing Iran's money and we condemn it," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state television.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has rejected claims by Iran's central bank that Congress was intruding into the business of federal courts when it passed a 2012 law that specifically directs that the banks' assets in the United States be paid to the families.
Iran has refused to comply with the rulings.