Press TV has conducted an interview with Kaveh Afrasiabi, author and political scientist from Boston, a ruling by the US Supreme Court allowing the transfer of some USD two billion of frozen Iranian assets to the families of the victims of a 1983 bombing in Beirut.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Legalistically looking at this, how legitimate is this American claim?

Afrasiabi: It’s not legitimate at all and let me say that although I’m a political scientist I once took civil rights case to the US Supreme Court and lost five to four and therefore, I’m pretty familiar with the Supreme Court and its long history. And this ruling really deserves credit next to all the horrible decisions that the court has made from Dred Scott to internment of American -Japanese and most recently in 2000, the Gore versus Bush, where the court handed over the presidency to a minority candidate.

The list is actually a pretty long one and unfortunately now we have to add this infamous ruling that scapegoats Iran and turns attention away from the real culprits. And there is no evidence to collaborate these wild allegations made against Iran. And we also have this ruling that has been made back in 2011 against Iran by the families of 9/11. And there is a balloon penalty of some seven to 10 billion dollars in the wings and so on. So, there is a terrible decision that needs to be decried not just by the Iranian people as the Iranian foreign minister has rightly echoed their outrage and hateful sentiment toward this prejudicial ruling but also the international community.

Press TV: Does the Obama administration have any say in order to, let’s say, overturn this ruling?

Afrasiabi: Unfortunately not, these courts are the last resort and the final say has been said on this matter. And I really think the only remedy available to Iran is to go through the international tribunals and countersue the US illegitimate heist of the Iranian assets.

Press TV: And finally in terms of the timing of this court ruling, could you amplify on the context that it is shaping in?

Afrasiabi: This is happening at the time when President Obama is in the Persian Gulf, in Saudi Arabia, and there has been a lot of action in the US Congress to disclose information about the Saudi culpability in the 9/11 atrocities and are of the 7,800 pages of the 9/11 commission report. There is only two pages reference and categorical admission by the principle architect of 9/11 that Iran or the Hezbollah had no foreknowledge of 9/11 and so forth. And therefore, there is an interlink between these decisions that need to be addressed and deconstructed vigorously through close scrutiny by the international media and experts in order to show the utter hypocrisy of it.

By Press TV