[JURIST] The Non-Alligned Movement (NAM), a loose organization of 120 developing countries, stated [text] on Thursday that the US has violated international law by allowing frozen Iranian assets to be dispersed to victims of terrorism. NAM’s accusations specifically target last month’s US Supreme Court ruling [JURIST report], which declared that the use of such assets, guaranteed by the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 [22 USC § 8722], was an appropriate exercise of Congressional authority regarding foreign affairs. Iran’s UN Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo [UN backgrounder] has called [AP report] on the US to respect state immunity and to settle the matter with “dialogue and accommodation over coercion and confrontation.” Furthermore, Khoshroo has requested the cooperation of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] in circulating NAM’s recent statement and compelling the US’s cooperation. A US spokesman has stated that NAM’s statement is currently under investigation.

The controversial Supreme Court ruling was in the matter of Bank Markazi v Peterson [SCOTUSblog materials]. The court heard oral arguments [JURIST report; transcript, PDF] for the case in January. The respondents were more than 1,000 individuals that brought suit against Iran for actions related to state sponsored terrorism. To enforce their claims under 28 USC §1605A [text], the statute that allows American nationals to seek money damages from state sponsors of terrorism in the courts of the US, petitioners moved for a turnover in 2008 of about $1.75 billion in bond assets held in a New York bank account by the Bank Markazi. The Petitioner Bank Markazi, a/k/a the Central Bank of Iran, argued that § 8722 allowed Congress to usurp judicial authority, which violates separation of powers.