CIA-RDP96-00789R000401020005-0

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May 15, 1990
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
A20 TUESDAY, MAY 15, 1990
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THE WASHINGTON POST
U.S., Iran Sign Deal to Settle Some Claims
Tehran to Pay $105 Million; Larger Disputes Still on Table
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Staff Writer
The United States and Iran
signed an agreement over the
weekend to settle 2,795 small U.S.
claims as well as a few U.S. govern-
ment claims against Tehran with a
lump sum payment of $105 million,
State Department officials an-
nounced yesterday.
The agreement will allow U.S.
and Iranian negotiators to concen-
trate on large financial disputes be-
tween the two nations.
A State Department specialist
said that the agreement, signed
Sunday in The Hague, resolved
both a "large number" of claims by
American
nationals, each f
$250,000 or less, and "10 loans
from the government of the United
States to the government of Iran
for various assistance purposes."
Among the major disputes yet to
be settled by the Iran-U.S. Claims
Tribunal in The Hague is Iran's
claim of more than $10 billion for
undelivered U.S. military goods and
services. Iran claims that the gov-
ernment of the late Shah Moham-
mad Reza Pahlavi paid that amount
on contracts that were broken after
the 1979 revolution.
"Some of their figures are quite
fantastic. Obviously, our view and
the Iranian view of what they have
are very far apart," said one senior
official.
The tribunal, set up in 1981 un-
der an accord that freed 52 Amer-
icans held hostage at the U.S. Em-
bassy compound in Tehran, is the
sole forum for official contact be-
tween both countries since the rup-
ture in U.S .- Iranian ties.
"The advantages to the U.S. are
fairly clear. It resolves a very large
portion of the claims tribunal's
work load, which hopefully will
make it possible to turn its atten-
tion to the remainder of its cases
and finish its work much more
quickly. Secondly, it assures that
compensation will get to these
claimants much faster," a senior
State Department official said of
the accord.
Those claimants include U.S.
companies that had property seized
or were not paid for goods and ser-
vices delivered to Iran as well as
individuals who were forced to exit
under emergency circumstances,
without being compensated for
property or back salary and wages.
The United States also has ten-
tatively agreed to pay Tehran
$400,000 to settle 108 small claims
from Iranians. Included is a claim
for personal property left behind by
Iranian naval cadets who had to sus-
pend training in the United States
after the hostages were seized.
The U.S. administration and chief
Iranian negotiator Ali Nobari insist
there is no connection between the
recent releases of two U.S. hos-
tages in Beirut and the small claims
negotiations. Iran experts said,
however, that any settlement could
only help Iranian President Ali
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani or oth-
ers pushing for further hostage re-
leases as an indication that a more
flexible policy toward Washington
has its rewards.
On Sunday, the commander of
the South Lebanon Army militia,
Gen. Antoine Lahd, said he was
ready to swap some Shiite Leba-
nese detainees for 16 western hos-
tages and three Israeli servicemen.
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Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000401020005-0