WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- R.J. Reynolds Tobacco International Inc. has received a $49.8 million award for claims arising from the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.
The award was granted by the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, company spokesman Ronald Field said Tuesday.
It was the largest award made by the tribunal, although other companies have received larger out-of-court settlements.
The award covers payment for tobacco products shipped to Iran before Nov. 4, 1979, when the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized and 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days. Most of the shipments were cigarettes sold to the Iranian tobacco monopoly in 1978 and 1979.
The award includes $36.3 million in principal and $13.5 million for interest from November 1981, when Reynolds filed suit, Field said.
'It (the Reynolds award) definitely is the largest. It's larger than the sum total of all the other awards (by the tribunal),' Field said.
The tribunal reserved judgment on Reynolds' request for interest for the two-year period before the suit was filed and dismissed counterclaims Iran filed against the company, a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds Industries.
The tribunal was created under an agreement clearing the way for release of the American hostages on Jan. 19, 1981.
Under the agreement, $9 billion in Iranian assets in the United States frozen by President Carter were transferred to an escrow account at the Bank of England. Iran agreed to repay immediately all of its uncontested bank loans and to put aside another $1.5 billion to settle disputed loans and claims.
The company filed suit after negotiations for payment failed.
