Russia says it is “surprised” by a US court ruling against Iran over the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

“I am lawfully surprised: what did the Americans do in Afghanistan for 15 years, if Iran is to blame for everything?” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

Last week, a New York court ordered Iran to pay $7.5 billion in damage to families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and $3 billion to a group of insurers over related claims.

The court issued the ruling after it said Iran had failed to defend itself against allegations of involvement in the attacks.

On Monday, Iran rejected the ruling as “unjust”, “ridiculous” and “absurd.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari described the US court order as “the latest product of the US Judicial system in the race for blindly following Zionist Iranophobic scenarios.”
“The ruling is ludicrous and absurd to the point that it makes a mockery of the principle of justice while further tarnishes the US judiciary’s reputation,” he said.
Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the 2001 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people. The only al-Qaeda plotter convicted over the 9/11 attacks told American lawyers that members of the Saudi royal family donated millions of dollars to the group in the 1990s.

None of the 19 hijackers on September 11 were Iranian citizens. Fifteen were from Saudi Arabia and the others were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon.

Many experts have raised questions about the official account of the attacks, saying they were designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they were carried out by Saudi Arabia.

By Press TV