U.S., IRAN REACH ACCORD OVER CLAIMS.

Byline: Associated Press 

The United States and Iran announced a $131.8 million settlement Thursday of Iranian claims against the United States, including compensation for the 1988 downing of an Iranian airliner that killed 290 people.

The State Department said no U.S. money would go to the Iranian government. Family members of Iranians killed when the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes shot an Iran Air A-300 Airbus out of the air over the Persian Gulf on July 3, 1988, will share $61.8 million, the department said.

It said the other $70 million in the package will go into bank accounts used to pay off private U.S. claims against Iran and Iran's expenses for the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, which is handling the claims. That portion was in settlement of Iranian claims involving banking matters, not the airliner, U.S. officials said.

Contradicting the U.S. statement that the Iranian government was receiving none of the money, Tehran announced the settlement as merely a payment to Iran. In addition, the government news agency IRNA reported that $30 million was to compensate for the lost airliner, but U.S. officials denied that.

In light of the agreement, cases covered by the settlement that were pending before the bilateral claims tribunal or the International Court of Justice were dismissed, officials said.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the airliner settlement "does not signal any change in our relations with Iran."

Settlement of the bank claims portion of the package also has "no political significance," Burns said, noting that other claims have been settled periodically over the years.