Britain abandons international trade court fight on reneged 1970s Arms Deal
MoD owes Iran £400m on 30-year-old bill
By Cahal Milmo and Nick Dowson | The Independent | 24 April 2010
For Britain’s hard-pressed armaments industry, it was a lucrative deal with a trusted ally. Between 1971 and 1976, the increasingly despotic Shah of Iran had signed on the dotted line for 1,500 state-of-the-art Chieftain battle tanks and 250 repair vehicles costing £650 million. Even better, Persia’s King of Kings paid the British government for his new weaponry up front.
The problem came in 1979 when, with just 185 tanks delivered to Tehran, the Iranian Revolution deposed Shah Pahlavi and installed an Islamic Republic with a somewhat less warm stance towards the United Kingdom. The massive deal, fully sanctioned by the Ministry of Defence, foundered and the Iranians, perhaps understandably, asked for their money back.
London refused and – after flogging a number of its suddenly surplus tanks to Iran’s most bitter enemy in the shape of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq – the British government has for 30 years fought a little-noticed but bitter legal wrangle in an obscure international trade court based in the Netherlands to hold onto what remains of the Shah’s money.
Until now.
The Independent can reveal that Britain is to pay back nearly £400m to Iran’s defence ministry after finally admitting defeat in the dispute in a move that will be heralded by Tehran as a major diplomatic triumph while it continues its international brinkmanship with the West over its nuclear ambitions.
Financial restrictions imposed by the European Union on Iranian banks which freeze any of Tehran’s assets held abroad, mean that Iran will not be able to access the funds. They will instead be held in a trust account overseen by independent trustees. The money will join £976m of Iranian assets already frozen in Britain… Full article
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What right does the European Union have to freeze the assets of anyone, let alone a country like Iran whose assets have been held by Britain for thirty years?
Obviously at the behest of the US and Israel.
All this does is to force the likes of countries like Iran with huge potential into the arms of both China and Russia and add once again to the factors that cause ‘cold wars’. I would have thought that history may have taught the US and Europe something over the years but it seems as though no one learns anything as the years pass. The fly in the ointment is bound to be Israel. No one does it better and having the US as your puppet must give a feeling of superiority in all things.
Time is ticking away for Israel as, like a lemming, it heads for self-destruction.
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The comment made by rexw is so very true and should be applauded for such a statement that is accurate and spot on.
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