Iran Demands $330 Million From US For 1980 Coup Plot
Iran's Judiciary has called on the US government to pay $330 million in compensation for its alleged role in the Nojeh coup plot against Iran's regime in July 1980.
Iran's Judiciary has called on the US government to pay $330 million in compensation for its alleged role in the Nojeh coup plot against Iran's regime in July 1980.
Widely referred to as the Nojeh Coup, the Saving Iran's Great Uprising was a scheme aimed at toppling the recently formed clerical regime Iran, along with its leadership under President Abolhassan Banisadr and Ruhollah Khomeini.
The plot, which was never executed, involved officers of Iran's royal army and civilians opposed to the Islamic Republic. This is the first time that the Iranian regime is accusing the United States of involvement in the plot.
According to the court verdict, the US government has been sentenced to pay $30 million for material and moral damages to the plaintiffs and $300 million for punitive damages.
The judiciary media center announced Saturday that “an open court session was held last month to address the claims of the families of the victims of the coup incident. The session took place at a judicial complex in Tehran, with the presence of survivors and those affected by the incident.”
The coup plot involved personnel from infantry, air force, army, and secret service of the Shah. It was largely foiled by the arrest of numerous officers on July 9-10, 1980, at Nojeh Air Base near Hamedan, west of Iran.
The demand from the Iranian regime comes in the wake of a deal with the Biden administration earlier this month to unblock $6 billion of Iran's frozen funds in exchange for five US citizens held hostage by Iran.
While Khomeini ordered the execution of those involved, Banisadr employed legal tactics to postpone the executions. With the Iraq invasion, many were released under the pledge of returning to duty. Nonetheless, 144 participants were executed, and 2,000–4,000 military personnel were dismissed.
The United States was insisting all along during nuclear talks that Iran’s funds would be released only after a nuclear deal was reached, Bagheri-Kani said during a television interview Thursday evening. However, “Iran’s diplomacy shaped conditions in such a way that the Americans were forced to retreat from their position and free Iran’s funds outside the framework of a [nuclear] agreement.”
Earlier this month, Iran and the United States announced that $6 billion frozen in South Korea due to US sanction will be released through Qatari mediation, as Iran moved five US hostages from prison into home detention. The Iranians insist that the US citizens will be released only as a prisoner exchange deal, and the release of the funds from South Korea is not related to the hostage deal. However, it is clear that the hostages are being kept in Tehran until the money reaches Iranian bank accounts in Qatar. Currently, the funds are with the Swiss central bank, which is exchanging them into euros gradually and will transfer to Qatar.
Bagheri-Kani confirmed that talks over the hostages were taking place alongside nuclear negotiations in 2021-2022, but the process ended when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and the delegations left Vienna after almost a year of periodic meetings.
He added that Iran continued pursuing the issue of the blocked funds through intermediaries and the US was resisting. In September 2022, however, “Americans accepted to take steps for releasing the money outside the framework of the nuclear talks, after our persistent follow-ups.”
This coincides with the start of nationwide antiregime protests in Iran immediately after the hijab police fatally wounded Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in mid-September. Once the protests began, the Biden administrations began voicing support for the Iranian people and their human rights. But if we believe the senior Iranian diplomat, this was the time the US administration agreed to discuss the release of the funds.
In early October, the State Department announced that the US was no longer pursuing the revival of the JCPOA.
“Our focus is not an accord that isn’t moving forward, but what is happening in Iran ... this popular movement and the brutal crackdown of the regime against protesters,” US special envoy Rob Malley said in Paris on October 14.“It’s the sale of armed drones by Iran to Russia ... and the liberation of our hostages…”
Two day later, Malley told CNN that "Right now the talks on revival of JCPOA are not on the US agenda; the focus is on what's happening in Iran as the talks are stalled," adding that “Iran has taken a position in those talks for the past two months, which is simply inconsistent with a return to the deal.” The same message was reiterated several times by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top officials.
Iranian protesters and their supporters in the US, Europe and elsewhere took these remarks as indication that the Biden administration had given up dealing with Tehran, while Bagheri-Kani’s remarks indicate behind the scenes talks were taking place for the release of the funds.
Bagheri-Kani said in his interview that the protests in Iran briefly “distracted” the Biden administration, “but they quickly returned to the talks at the end of autumn.”
Critics see the hostage deal as a dangerous step by the US, which will embolden Tehran to detain more Americans given the chance and the money can empower it to undertake anti-West actions.
Moreover, media reports have hinted that the administration has in fact reached a wider, unwritten deal with Tehran, because around $3 billion was also released from Iraq. Supposedly, Iran has agreed to marginally slow down its uranium enrichment in exchange for the funds and a US willingness not to actively enforce existing sanctions.
The electronic warfare drills -- codenamed Separ-e Hafezan-e Velayat 1402 (Shield of Velayat's Guardians 1402) -- involved various units from the military's navy, ground and air forces as well as air defenses and was staged in the central, largely desert region of the country.
The state broadcaster said that the exercises featured domestically manufactured radars, drones, manned and unmanned fighter jets, micro aerial vehicles and other military equipment as the country seeks to assess the performance and effectiveness of various fixed, mobile, ground-based and airborne electronic warfare systems.
“The army has the appropriate infrastructure, and we have achieved favorable results in countering threats in today’s world and predicting future threats in this sensitive and complicated arena,” said Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the deputy chief of the army’s coordination department.
According to Friday's statement by the Army, various tactics and operations have been carried out during the drill, including identifying radio and data link communications, execution of group attack operations by micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) against targets, electronic operations to protect radars, and ground-based electronic operations to disrupt and deceive enemy radar systems.
Iran has recently unveiled a series of what it called new maritime weapons and an upgraded drone earlier this month as Washington appeared to be increasing pressure on Tehran.
Earlier in the month, the Biden administration signaled that it may soon offer to put armed sailors and Marines on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Pentagon last month had already sent additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets along with a warship to the Middle East in a bid to monitor key waterways in the region following Iran's seizure and harassment of commercial vessels.
