US urges UN court to toss out Iranian frozen assets case

By MIKE CORDER
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United States has urged the International Court of Justice to throw out a case brought by Iran seeking to claw back some $2 billion worth of frozen Iranian assets that the U.S. Supreme Court awarded to victims of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other attacks linked to Tehran. The leader of the U.S. legal team told the United Nations court on Wednesday that it should invoke for the first time a legal principle known as “unclean hands” under which a nation can’t bring a case because of its own criminal actions linked to the case. Iran said on Monday that the U.S. asset confiscation was an attempt to destabilize the Tehran government and a violation of international law.