The United States must compensate Iran with $1 trillion for damage caused from the sanctions imposed on Tehran.
This was stated by the deputy for legal affairs of the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, the elite units of the Iranian armed forces) General Ali Shamkhani.
„The Americans should pay Iran 1 trillion dollars in compensation for the damage they caused to our country by restraining it,”, the press service of the Iranian Ministry of Defense quoted him as saying. The general noted that the US began imposing sanctions on Iran after the Islamic Revolution, not after Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal.
Shamkhani noted that the United States authorities have supported terrorist groups in the Middle East, which has harmed the national security of the Islamic Republic.
The United States imposed the first unilateral sanctions against Iran shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought down the Shah's regime. The reason for the restrictions was the takeover of the American embassy and its staff in Tehran on November 4, 1979 by a group of Iranian students.
Then Washington put serious pressure on Tehran. An executive order by US President Jimmy Carter on November 14, 1979 halted the purchase of Iranian oil, froze Iranian deposits in US banks and their foreign branches, and prohibited the sale of military units to Iran. After the severing of diplomatic relations in April 1980, Washington imposed a ban on the export of American goods to Iran (including food and medicine), remittances to that country, and the import of Iranian goods.
In the following years, the US sanctions regime against Iran was repeatedly adjusted: some bans were lifted, others were tightened, and new restrictions were introduced. After the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, sanctions began to be gradually lifted in response to restrictions on Iran's nuclear program.
But in 2018, then-current US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement and reinstated all US restrictions that are still in place. After 2022, Washington imposed several packages of sanctions against Tehran for alleged military supplies to Russia.