Iranian leaders want coup compensation for time under shah

National council files complaint on U.S. confiscation of assets

The Iranian parliament wants the United States to compensate the country for damages from a series of events dating to the coup in 1953 that increased the power of the pro-American shah.

The parliament passed a bill Tuesday requiring its government to demand compensation from the United States for “spiritual and material” damages.

Also Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council voted to file a complaint with the International Court of Justice against the United States over a Supreme Court ruling that approved confiscation of Iranian assets.

The cases reflect Iran’s frustra- tion with the pace of integration into the global trade and banking community since some international sanctions were lifted in January. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, accused the United States last month of creating “Iranophobia” to slow economic progress.

The compensation bill does not determine a monetary amount for the damages, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The CIA has acknowledged directing the coup in 1953, which drove out Iran’s democratically elected prime minister during a bitter dispute over control of oil. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi remained in power until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, months before the start of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The parliament seeks compensation for, among other things, 17,000 victims of assassination, the “martyrdom” of 223,600 soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and more recently for “blocking, confiscating or seizing of assets belonging to Iranian government, organizations or public and state-owned organizations and officials of Iran.”

A series of international boycotts have battered the Iranian economy. Last year, Iran reached an agreement with the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany to limit its nuclear program in return for lifting some sanctions.

Iran’s supreme leader accused the United States of creating “Iranophobia” to slow economic progress.

IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER WEBSITE VIA EPA Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accuses the U.S. of dragging its feet on Iran’s reintegration into the global economy.