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The US has paid $1.7 billion of its outstanding debts to Iran under previous mutual military contracts signed before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, an Iranian deputy defense minister says.

“Currently, we have some claims from the US with regard to the pre-Revolution contracts, some of which have been paid over the recent years, including a sum of $1.71 billion,” said General Reza Tala’i-Nik in a TV interview on Tuesday.

The Islamic Republic’s outstanding claims under other contracts from the US are currently being reviewed at Iran-US Claims Tribunal at The Hague, the commander said.

Tala’i-Nik pointed to the US military presence in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, denouncing it as “violation of the international law.”

“The security of the Persian Gulf can only be provided through the participation of its littoral states and regional cooperation, as presence of foreign sides has merely disrupted security in the region,” the commander noted.

Iranian naval forces are tasked with guaranteeing security within the country’s maritime borders, where they have been involved in a series of face-offs with US vessels for intrusion into Iranian territorial waters.

Iran has repeatedly warned that any act of transgression into Iran’s territorial waters would be met with an immediate and befitting response.

*(Iranian Deputy defense Minister General Reza Tala’i-Nik. Image credit: Tasnim news agency)