Iran MPs Consider Suing Canada Over Asset Seizure

Canada’s Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered last Thursday, June 9, that $13m in non-diplomatic Iranian assets be handed over to a number of families.

The decision was similar to the US Supreme Court’s ruling in April to hand over about $2bn of Iran’s frozen assets to the American families of those  killed in a 1983 bombing and other attacks.

“There is an atmosphere of Iranophobia in America which doesn’t want the goals of the JCPOA to materialize in a peaceful environment,” Iranian MP Alireza Rahimi said on Wednesday. “Court rulings against our assets under various pretexts are in line with efforts to portray a totally insecure atmosphere after the JCPOA and debase the opportunity which has been created.”

Rahimi said, “We must be careful that technical and legal issues do not mix with politics and that legal issues are not overshadowed by politics.”

“The Iranian government must put taking legal measures on the agenda, in proportion to the files which are opened against us, in order to defend the obvious rights of the people.”

The MP, who is a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that the necessary coordination has been made between the Presidential Office and the Foreign Ministry to take legal action.

“At the moment, all parts of the establishment are ready for the legal pursuit of these issues,” Rahimi added.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the ruling, which comes as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government seeks to restore diplomatic relations with Iran.

“The move by the Canadian government contradicts claims about the normalization of relations between the two countries, and compensation for the extremist policies of the country’s former government,” Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said last Saturday.

Iran has denied any role in the attacks on which US and Canadian courts have based their cases to appropriate the country’s frozen assets.