Iran renews call on UK to pay off outstanding debt
The Iranian government is widely accused of using the case of a jailed British-Iranian activist as a pressure tool to secure the repayment of the long-standing debt.
Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami, said March 23 that the UK government should “act with practicality” in delivering an outstanding payment of 400 million pounds ($551 million) to the Islamic Republic.
The debt has to do with an undelivered package of hundreds of British Chieftain tanks and armored vehicles ordered by the Shah of Iran before he was brought down in the country’s 1979 revolution.
Hatami’s statement was a response to his British counterpart Ben Wallace, who acknowledged earlier that it was “absolutely right” for the UK “to honor” the debt and that London “should find ways to return it to Iran.” The UK government has previously linked the repayment failure to international sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.
In 2008, following a yearslong legal battle over the case, an international arbitration court ruled in favor of Iran. British officials have accepted the verdict, and Wallace was last among them to say that London will “comply … with the rule of law.”
