Iran says US court order on 9/11 compensation ‘ridiculous’

Iran rejects as “ridiculous” a US court ruling that the Islamic Republic pay more than $10 billion in compensation over the al-Qaeda-claimed 9/11 attacks.

A New York court last week ordered Tehran to pay $7.5 billion to victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — and $3 billion to insurers over related claims — after ruling that Iran had failed to prove that it did not help the bombers.

As seen from the New Jersey Turnpike, smoke billows from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City after airplanes crashed into both towers, September 11, 2001. (JTA/AP/Gene Boyars)

“This judgement is so ridiculous… more than ever before, it damages the credibility of the US judicial system,” state television quotes an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

“Such judgements also send a very dangerous message to terrorists and to their supporters: Kill people… not only will we not prosecute, but we will even target your greatest enemies instead,” Hossein Jaber Ansari says.

“We also see the US administration as a partner in such verdicts,” Ansari says.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary general of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, also criticizes the ruling.

“If they (the United States) want to prosecute anyone over the September 11 incident, it should be their allies in the region who created al-Qaeda and funded it,” he says.

— AFP