UK agrees to pay Iran debt for broken 1974 contract

A top Iranian diplomat said that a 400 million-pound ($535 million) debt owed by the UK over a decades-old military contract will hopefully be settled “soon,” and that the two countries’ were trying to work out how the payment can be made, Report informs referring to Bloomberg.

In an interview in London, Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and lead negotiator in the forthcoming talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, said the matter was raised in a meeting he had on November 11 with British Foreign Ministry officials.

“The main issue about paying the debt and its level is agreed, but the method and process of how the payment is made hasn’t yet been resolved,” he said, adding discussions will continue in Tehran next week.

The minister said that the talks were “serious” and a step forward in bridging some differences between the two countries.

The UN International Court of Justice in 2012 called on the UK to pay Iran compensation for a contract between International Military Services (IMS) and Iran in 1974. Under this agreement, the company was obliged to supply more than 1,000 units of British tanks to Iran, but due to the revolution in Iran in 1979, London refused to fulfill the terms of the contract.