Iran Court Orders US To Pay $50B For Damages Amid Nuclear Talks: Report

Iran's judiciary on Monday ordered the United States to pay a $50 billion fine for damages on real and legal entities since the country's 1979 Islamic revolution, according to the Iranian Fars News Agency, Politico reported. “Those who had filed a lawsuit against the U.S., their complaints have been processed,” judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei told reporters at a news conference in Tehran, according to Fars News.

The hefty sum was reportedly for loss of life and a number of other U.S. actions purportedly taken against Iran. "Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, the U.S. has inflicted heavy loss and damage on the country, including killing the Iranian nationals by assisting their enemies, including Saddam and different terrorist groups against Tehran," the article from the country's semiofficial outlet stated.

The 1979 revolution saw the ouster of Iran's then-king, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the installationof Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the supreme leader of the new Islamic Republic. The $50 billion order comes during important, ongoing talks about Iran's nuclear program in Vienna. Iran and six world leaders known as the P5+1 group -- China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., plus Germany -- were negotiating an agreement that would limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for relief from heavy economic sanctions.

The United States was open to paying Iran a signing bonus of up to perhaps $50 billion in exchange for agreeing to the nuclear deal, the Wall Street Journal reported in April. The payment would go toward immediate economic relief as sanctions were be lifted in phases. But officials warned the relief would not last if Iran did not abide by the deal’s terms.

“Our main concern here is making sure that if Iran doesn’t abide by its agreement that we don’t have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops in order to reinstate sanctions,” U.S. President Barack Obama said at a news conference at the time, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The deadline for a deal with Iran has been pushed back a number of times, but Reuters reported that the group was inching toward an agreement Monday. While leaders were reportedly "close to a deal," Iranian officials warned talks could go past the midnight deadline and that an agreement was not definite.