It was in 1979 that radical Muslims overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran, a pro-Western family that had led the Middle East territory for years.
That was at the time when extremist Muslims took U.S. officials at the embassy in Tehran hostage and threatened their lives for over a year.
Given the vast instability in the nation at the time, it’s not a surprise that only months later, there was an attempted coup against the fundamental Islamists, the ayatollahs, who had taken over.
And since that attempt was the fault of the United States, Iranian officials claim, a court there has decided, its taxpayers need to pay up – to the tune of $330 million.
It is a report at Foreign Desk News that explains the 1979 revolution took down the monarchical government of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who had been Westernizing the nation, and replace it with the Islamists who now run what they call the “Islamic Republic.”
The report, quoting the official government mouthpiece in Iran, the media outlet IRNA, said now a court there “has issued a verdict demanding that the United States government pay $330 million in restitution for its alleged involvement in orchestrating a failed 1980 coup against the newly established regime.”
The report claimed former Iranian military chiefs and others led the attempt, and several people ended up being killed.
“The report stated that family members of those killed lodged the complaint last August, alleging that the U.S. took part in the ‘planning and execution’ of the attempted overthrow of the year-old Islamist government,” the report said.
The Iranian court said the U.S. must pay $30 million for damages, plus $300 million in punitive damages.
Such penalty is unlikely to be considered seriously in the United States, but such court claims are often used for propaganda.
Conversely, U.S. courts over the years periodically have granted damages from Iran to the various victims of the regime’s abuses.
The two nations have not had diplomatic ties since the 1979 revolution.
This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
This post originally appeared on WND News Center.