The Iran-US relationship

 

US President Joe Biden and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. AP/TT  

 

The Iran-US relationship 

Iran demands sky-high damages from US for 'coup plans'  

 

A court in Tehran has ordered the United States to pay $330 million in damages for "planning a coup" against the newly established Islamic Republic in 1980, AFP reports.  

 

A year after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed shah, a group of army officers tried to oust the new rule. Several people were killed in the clashes, and last year relatives of those killed submitted a claim for damages to the court. According to the state-run website Mizan Online, the relatives specifically blamed the United States for the coup. 

 

"The US government must pay the plaintiff 30 million dollars in material and moral damages, and 300 million dollars in punitive damages," writes the court.  

 

The United States has not yet commented on the demand. Mural of two Americans being held captive overseas.  

 

On the left, Siamak Namazi, who has been imprisoned in Iran since 2015 and on the right, Jose Angel Pereira, who was imprisoned in Venezuela in 2017. Patrick Semansky / AP 

The Iran-US relationship  

Prisoner deal highlights Iran's 'sponsored hostage-taking'  

 

The prisoner exchange agreement between the US and Iran represents a rare glimmer of light for the risqué relationship, writes the Washington Post. As a first step, four Americans have been moved from the notorious Evin prison to house arrest. 

 

Rights groups have accused Iran of setting up systems to imprison people with dual citizenship in order to use them in negotiations with other countries.  

 

"A practice that amounts to state-sponsored hostage-taking," writes the Washington Post.  

 

The agreement with the US includes the release of five Iranian prisoners as well as the release of six billion dollars in oil revenues held in South Korea under US sanctions. According to sources with knowledge of the agreement, the money is to be used for humanitarian purposes.  

 

WP has also spoken to the Swedish Foreign Ministry, who state that a handful of people with Swedish citizenship are imprisoned in Iran. Among them is the Swedish-Iranian researcher Ahmadreza Djalali, sentenced to death.