Iranian Court Decides US Owes Iran $330 Million

Here’s a recent entry in the annals of chutzpah from the Islamic Republic of Iran. An Iranian court, no doubt strictly objective, has decided that the United States must pay Iran $330 million for its part in a “planned coup” in 1980. More on this bizarre decision can be found here: “Iranian Court Orders U.S. to Pay $330 Million for ‘Planning Coup’ in 1980,” i24 News, August 26, 2023:

A Tehran court has ruled that the U.S. government must pay a sum of $330 million in damages for its alleged involvement in planning a coup against the newly established Islamic Republic back in 1980.

The decision was announced by Iran’s judiciary on a Saturday.

Note that there was no Iranian coup in 1980. There was only a “planned” coup that was nipped in the bud. The Iranians do have reason to complain, but not about the abortive coup of 1980. Rather, they justifiably harbor resentment over the successful coup that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in August 1953. Mossadegh had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and the British wanted him removed so that they could reassert their ownership of the company he had taken from them. The Americans had their own reasons for wanting Mossadegh out of office. They feared that his nationalism, and his animus toward the British, just might push him closer to the Soviet Union, which could become its protector against British attempts to take back ownership of the oil company that Mossadegh had seized. The CIA was unable to distinguish Mossadegh’s nationalism from anti-Western (and therefore suspected pro-Soviet) animus.

The CIA man in charge of organizing the coup against Mossadegh was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., who was not known for any special interest in Iran, but rather, was well known in the CIA and in the outside world for his pro-Arab and anti-Zionist sympathies. Roosevelt served on the advisory board of a largely-Arab organization, the Institute of Arab American Affairs; he wrote an essay in 1948 about his unfavorable views of American Zionism and the partition of Palestine. He then became the executive director of a pro-Arab group, the Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land. Finally, he was one of the founders of the American Friends of the Middle East (AFME), a powerful conduit for Arab propaganda.

In collaboration with the British, Roosevelt arranged for a coup to be precipitated by army officers, and though the Shah had initially been reluctant to overthrow Mossadegh, eventually he was persuaded to take part in the coup. According to the CIA’s declassified documents and records, some of Iran’s most feared mobsters were hired by the CIA to stage pro-shah riots on August 19. Other men paid by the CIA were brought into Tehran in buses and trucks, and took over the streets of the city. Between 200 and 300 people were killed because of the conflict. Mossadegh was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason by the Shah’s military court. In December 1953, he was sentenced to three years in jail, then placed under house arrest for the remainder of his life. Other Mosaddegh supporters were imprisoned, and several received the death penalty.

In August 2013, the U.S. government formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the 1953 coup by releasing a bulk of previously classified government documents that showed it was in charge of both the planning and the execution of the coup, including the bribing of Iranian politicians, security, and army high-ranking officials, as well as pro-coup propaganda.

But the attempted coup in 1980, for which the Iranians are now demanding $330 million, hardly got off the ground, and there appears to be no clear evidence of any American involvement with the Iranian army plotters in that attempt.

The incident in question [the planned coup of 1980] occurred a year after the 1979 Islamic revolution that saw the ousting of the U.S.-backed Shah regime. At that time, a group primarily comprising army officers aimed to overthrow the nascent government.

Led by Saeed Mahdiyoun, a former Iranian air force commander, the group was based at the Nojeh air base in the western province of Hamedan….

Is there any evidence that Saeed Mahdiyoun received any military, financial, or logistics help from the Americans? If so, it has not been made public. Did the Americans help him to make contact with other likeminded military men at bases across Iran, or was he quite capable of contacting them himself? In the absence of any evidence of American involvement — surely the Iranians would be glad to release it, if they had any — the Iranian charge is unconvincing. 

Unlike the 1953 coup, the 1980 attempt was neither planned nor financed by the American government. Nor did the Americans play any role in helping to execute the coup; had they done so, it might well have succeeded.

The court ultimately ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the U.S. government to pay $30 million in material and moral damages, along with an additional $300 million in punitive damages….

No one should have expected a different result from an Iranian court. The evidence of an American role in the 1980 coup has not been made public by Iran; the only possible explanation is that no such evidence exists, other than the Iranian army plotters possibly having informed Washington of their plans for a coup that never came to pass. The U.S. under Jimmy Carter was understandably not about to get involved in any way with attempts to overthrow the Iranian government, while it was engaged in delicate negotiations with Tehran over freeing the 66 Americans being held as prisoners at the American Embassy.

But since the Iranians decided to sue the American government in an Iranian court which, of course, found for the plaintiff, awarding it $30 million in material and moral damages and $300 million in punitive damages, surely what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

To wit:

To the Attention of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:

For holding 66 American embassy personnel hostage for 444 days (Nov. 4 1979-Jan. 20, 1981):

Loss of liberty: calculated at $1000/day for 66 people, during 444 days, for a total of: $29.3 million

Material damage to Embassy: $2.5 million

Damage to American self-esteem, the result of our embassy personnel being held hostage and paraded, blindfolded, before the cameras: $100 million for each hostage held, for a total of $6.6 billion

For near-daily protests across Iran over the past 44 years, where America has been, and continues to be, reviled as “the Great Satan” and the American flag is stomped on and set alight, which has caused untold psychic damage to 335 million Americans: $50 billion.

Grand Total: $56.63 billon, which will be rounded up to $57 billion. Payment should be by bank check.

That seems fair to me. Does it to you?