Iran: Court Orders US To Pay $313M For 2017 Attacks

Facts

• On Wednesday, an Iranian court ordered the US government and eight US officials and entities — including former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as the CIA — to pay $312.95M over the 2017 twin attacks in Tehran.¹
• The 55th branch of the Tehran Court of Justice's ruling — based on complaints by families of the victims — aims to prevent what it called "further US violations of international law" and accuses the US of being complicit in the creation of terrorist groups, including the Islamic State (IS).²
• According to the court's verdict, the nine American entities must pay $9.95M in material damages to the plaintiffs in addition to $104M in moral and $199M for punitive damages, however, the court didn't specify how the compensation order will be executed.³
• The court claims to have cited "reliable news" published in US media about the defendants' alleged role in "organizing and directing terrorist groups" and unidentified speeches of high-ranking US officials as evidence to support its judgment.⁴
• In June 2017, two simultaneous IS-claimed terrorist attacks on Iran's high-security parliament and the Imam Khomeini Mausoleum killed at least 17 people and wounded 50 others.⁵
• The ruling comes after the International Court of Justice rejected Tehran's bid to unlock Iran's Central Bank assets worth at least $2B frozen by US authorities and as tensions between the two nations remain high over Tehran's advancing nuclear program.⁶

Sources: ¹Washington Post, ²JURIST, ³Al Jazeera, ⁴The Times of Israel, ⁵PressTV, and ⁶Associated Press.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Washington Post. Tehran's false claim that the US is in cahoots with IS is outrageous. No direct evidence supports the court's ruling, which is an obvious attempt to get even following numerous — legitimate — orders passed by US courts over the years that have held Iran accountable for orchestrating terrorist attacks on foreign soil. The US must push back against Iran's subversive activities that attempt to create an anti-American axis across the region and destabilize the global order.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Guardian. While the US may not have directly ordered the 2017 attacks, in an effort to advance its global hegemony, it made conditions in the Middle East ripe for terrorism, as seen in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, where many citizens continue to suffer the consequences of the US' farce War on Terror. The US government must own up to its role in the 2017 attacks and, more importantly, recognize that it's the incubator of terrorism, not the cure.

Predictions