DUBAI (Dispatches) — Alleged victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have asked the U.S. government to seize Iranian crude oil suspected to be on an American-owned oil tanker in Asia, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
Their court filings in New York come as U.S. investigators continue to probe the alleged involvement of the Suez Rajan, owned by Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management, in the sanctioned trade of Iranian oil as negotiations continue over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.
The federal court filings, submitted late Thursday in the U.S., call on American authorities to seize the crude oil and sell it on behalf of families to in part settle an over $3 billion judgment issued against Iran over the attacks which have nothing to do with the country in any possible way.
The filing suggests as many as 1 million barrels of oil could be aboard the Suez Rajan, crude put there by the National Iranian Oil Co. and the National Iranian Tanker Corp., both now sanctioned entities by the U.S. Treasury.
The group United Against Nuclear Iran raised allegations against the Suez Rajan in a February letter to Oaktree Capital Management, which holds assets worth over $160 billion.
While legal experts have viewed the judgment against Iran as largely unenforceable, the U.S. has been trying to steal Iranian crude oil found at sea. America claimed last year to have sold some 2 million barrels of Iranian crude oil after seizing an oil tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s assets have been subject to a witch hunt by the Americans who have used Washington’s animosity toward the Islamic Republic to make claims against the country in U.S. courts.
Iran has denounced U.S. seizures of its assets in the United States as “highway robbery” and hauled the United States before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague.