British FM: We want to pay our debt to Iran but there are problems.
Speaking at the Chatham House’s foreign policy think tank in London on Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Liz Terrace claimed that some issues had prevented her from doing so, despite Britain’s willingness to repay its debt to Iran.
“We know this is a legitimate debt,” he said. We definitely want to pay off this debt. “Of course there are many issues that I am sure you are well aware of.”
“I have talked about this debt with my Iranian counterpart [Hossein Amir-Abdollahian], but it is not easy to do so for several reasons,” he continued.
The British government owes about 400 million pounds (excluding interest) to Tehran for not delivering Chiftan tanks to Iran.
These tanks were ordered by the Pahlavi regime and about 400 million pounds were paid for their purchase, but with the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Britain canceled their delivery and refused to return the amount paid by Iran.
Despite acknowledging that it owes money to Iran legally, the British government has tried to justify its failure to repay its debt to Iran on various pretexts, including US sanctions.
