- TEHRAN (Reuters) -- An Iranian
court has ruled the United States should pay US$600 million ($963 million)
in compensation for supplying ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with chemical
weapons, the official IRNA news agency said on Wednesday.
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- IRNA said the money in the case, brought by Iranian war
veterans and disabled, should be paid to survivors of attacks on the town
of Sardasht which borders Iraq.
-
-
- Iraqi gas attacks killed thousands of Iranians and Iraqi
Kurds in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands died on both
sides and Iran has thousands disabled by chemical arms.
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- No further details were available and Iranian officials
were unavailable for any immediate comment.
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- "The court has ordered the American government to
pay the money for furnishing Saddam with chemical weapons to attack Iran,"
IRNA reported.
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- The United States and Iran have been at odds since 1979
when more than 50 Americans were held hostage by Iranian student militants
at the US Embassy in Tehran for 444 days after the Islamic revolution.
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- The verdict was submitted to the Swiss Embassy, which
has covered US interests in Iran since Washington cut ties with Tehran
in 1980.
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