The Majlis voted Tuesday to take up urgently a draft bill that calls on Iran to file suit against the United States for scheming in the 1953 overthrow of the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.
It wasn’t made clear what the urgency was. The 50th anniversary of the coup was marked August 19.
The Majlis votes when a bill is introduced whether to treat the bill at normal speed by putting it in a queue behind other bills or whether to expedite it (called single urgency) or move it to the front of the line (double urgency). The Majlis voted Tuesday to take up bill as business Wednesday under double urgency.
The speed appeared to stem from eagerness to give anti-American speeches since there was no deadline compelling speed after 50 years.
The bill seeks compensation from the United States for intervening in Iranian internal affairs and for damage to the Iranian state.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly threatened to take foreign powers into international courts to seek redress for offenses against it. But it only rarely ever follows through.
Iran last took the United States to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1988 over the US attacks on Iranian oilrigs in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for Iranian mine laying in the Persian Gulf. Iran won part of that suit.
Iran is currently suing Russia in an international contract arbitration court over Moscow’s cancellation of a contract to sell Iran the S-300 air defense weapon system.
