The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last week allowing victims of Iranian terror to collect $2 billion in frozen assets was “hostile and illegal, ” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Rouhani described the decision as an example of American hostility to Iran, saying that “these assets all belong to Iran and we consider the misappropriation hostile and illegal.”

The court decision allows 1,300 survivors and relatives of victims of the 1983 Beirut Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon and the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia to collect from $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets to satisfy claims against the Islamic Republic. Iran was found liable for the barracks bombing in 2003 and for the Khobar Towers bombing three years later. Rouhani’s defense minister, Hossein Dehghan, has been implicated in the 1983 attack.

The U.S. released 1.7 billion in frozen Iranian funds in January, a move that was criticized by some observers, who characterized it as a ransom payment for the release of five Americans who had been imprisoned by Iran. Congressional Republicans have called for an investigation into the terms of the payment.

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