The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was passed by Congress to allow
American victims that win judgements against Iran and other countries deemed
terrorist sponsors to seize their assets in the United States. The law
defines blocked assets as those "seized or frozen by the United States" for
foreign policy purposes.
But in a majority decision, the court of appeals ruled that the law does
not override the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Middle East Newsline reported. The convention
was meant to protect the diplomatic assets of foreign countries. The U.S.
government has been the custodian of Iran's diplomatic assets, including an
embassy, two diplomatic residences and two parking lots, since 1980.
The State Department has sought to block the claims of American victims
of insurgency attacks against Iran. U.S. courts have awarded hundreds of
millions of dollars in judgements against Iran to victims of Hamas and
Hizbullah attacks. Both Hamas and Hizbullah have been deemed proxies of
Iran.
The Bennetts argued that Iranian properties in the United States unused
exclusively for diplomatic or consular purposes were not covered by TRIA.
Since 1983, the State Department rented Iranian properties to other foreign
missions and private parties. The income from the rentals were placed in an
Iranian bank account frozen by Washington.
"Finally, we note that it may very well be that the private parties who
rented the properties did so in service of nondiplomatic ends," the court
said. "But their purposes are irrelevant to the protection Congress provided
for these properties. TRIA says nothing about the purpose anyone other than
the United States might have in its use of the properties."
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