(IRIB) -- 'After two decades of litigation between Iran and Britian, London is due to pay its debt to Tehran within days,' Baeedinejad said in a Telegram message posted on Friday. 

 

Unfortunately, on the verge of this big major development, certain British media with no information about the details of this complicated project tend to link it to Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's case.

 

Zaghari, who worked for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in Kerman in April 2016 with charges relating to national security; she has been sentenced to five years in jail.

 

After the arrest, the Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) in Kerman issued a statement and said, “In a sophisticated intelligence operation in the virtual space and real life, one of the foreign-affiliated ringleaders who had various missions to materialize the menacing designs of the enemies of the Islamic Establishment, was recognized and arrested.”

 

 

'The case which is known as International Military Services (IMS) IMS deals with an agreement signed between Iran and England in 1974-1976 to buy Chieftain Tanks and some military cars as well,' Baeedinejad said referring to the litigation.

 

'Based on one of the agreements, IMS was supposed to deliver 1,500 Chieftain Tanks to Iranian Army but only 185 ones have so far been received,' he said. 'The British side has not fulfilled its commitments and the implementation of these agreements was breached by London.'

 

'After years of legal litigation, UK was charged with breach of agreement by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in 2001 and the British side was sentenced to pay debts and damages,' the Iranian envoy reiterated.

 

'Due to the complexity of the case, both sides have held negotiations for eight years and finally the amount of debt was settled in 2009,' Baeedinejad said.

 

After the implementation of Iran nuclear deal known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran has followed up receiving the full amount of debt.

 

Meanwhile, reacting to recent news disseminated by certain media outlets in Britain on the United Kingdom's financial debts to Iran and their settlement by London and attempts by these media to connect the two separate issues, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that Zaghari's case was examined in the Iranian courts and she has been convicted after undergoing legal proceedings.