“The issue of the inked contracts with the British IMS firm is related to purchasing some weapons before the Islamic Revolution and the International Court in the Hague has ruled in Iran’s favor,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said in an interview with the parliament’s news website today.
She said that despite abundant meetings and talks between the Iranian and British officials on the issue and the Court’s verdict, the negotiations have yielded no results due to the British firms’ attempts to rock the boat.
At the centre of the dispute between Tehran and London are hundreds of tanks paid for by Tehran but never delivered as a result of the 1979 Iranian revolution.
The Shah of Iran had ordered 1,750 tanks and support vehicles for £650m from International Military Services (IMS) before he was toppled, whereupon the deal was cancelled. Only 185 were delivered and Iran has wanted its money back ever since.
The International Chamber of Commerce sided with Tehran in an arbitration concluded in 2009.
IMS set aside hundreds of millions of pounds more than a decade ago in case international courts later ruled against the firm. In 2010, it was expected that IMS would transfer to an account holding Iranian assets more than £390m, which Tehran could not touch because of EU sanctions.
However, the Independent on Sunday revealed that Iran will again chase IMS for nearly £400m in the High Court this summer.
MoD officials are still hopeful that a negotiated settlement could be completed before the latest legal action starts, but there is some speculation that Tehran's brokers would rather resolve the issue through a court ruling.
