FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         FCS
THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1995                            (202) 616-2765
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 

   FINAL SMALL CLAIMS TO BE PAID FOR IRANIAN REVOLUTION LOSSES 


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission
has cleared the way for the United States to distribute about $17
million in final interest payments to about 1,000 United States
citizens who lost property during the 1979 Iranian revolution,
the Department of Justice announced today.  
     The Department of Treasury, which already has paid $42
million to settle claims on the principal, will begin the
interest payments in four to six weeks.  The effective interest
rate is about 3 percent.
     Commission Chair Delissa Ridgway said the three-member
commission, which reviewed approximately 3,100 claims submitted
by individuals and corporations through the Department of State,
officially closed the Iranian adjudication program February 24.   
     "This closes one more chapter in the history of U.S.
relations with Iran following the Islamic revolution," Ridgway
said.     
     Ridgway said the commission's case-by-case review involved
so-called "small" claims, those valued at $250,000 or less. 
About 150 claims of more than $250,000 are pending before the
Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which was
established under the Algiers Accords in 1981.
     Funds for the payment of the claims came from a 1990
settlement agreement between the United States and Iran.  Under
the agreement, Iran paid the United States government a lump-sum
payment of $105 million to settle claims of U.S. citizens and the
United States.  Some $55 million was allocated to settle
government claims and $50 million to settle personal and
corporate claims.  The $50 million earned approximately $9
million from investments while held in the United States
treasury.
     The commission's awards to individuals and corporations
covered claims for both real property and personal property
seized by Iran following the 1979 Islamic revolution.  The
property included such personal items as automobiles, jewelry,
clothing, rugs and art objects.  In addition, many claims were
based on commercial transactions, including contracts for the
sale of goods and contracts for the supply of services such  as
teaching, medical treatment, data processing and shipping.
     "The Iran claims program has been the most complex program
to date because of the extensive business dealings between the
U.S. and Iran at that time," said Ridgway.  "This is the first
program in which commercial transactions comprised a major
portion of the claims." 
     The commission, an independent quasi-judicial agency within
the Department of Justice, adjudicates claims of United States
citizens against foreign countries for the nationalization or
other taking of their property.
     In recent years, the commission has resolved citizen claims
against such countries as Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet
Union, Egypt, China, Vietnam and Cuba.  
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