Iran’s parliament on Tuesday voted through a law obliging the government to demand damages from the United States over Washington’s activities and crimes against the Islamic Republic and its nationals.

Iran's parliament on Tuesday voted through a law obliging the government to demand damages from the United States over Washington’s activities and crimes against the Islamic Republic and its nationals.

"The government has the duty to take the necessary measures seeking compensation for material and moral damages caused by the United States" to the country and Iranians over the past 63 years, the text reads, according to Iran state TV.

It cites "material or moral damage" caused by the US during the coup against nationalist leader Mohammad Mossadegh (1953), in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), in the destruction of oil platforms in the Gulf and in espionage against the Islamic republic.

Parliament did not specify a sum, but Vice President Majid Ansari said during the debate that "Iranian courts have already ruled that the US pay $50 billion in damages for its hostile actions" towards the country.

The law was passed by the outgoing parliament in response to a US Supreme Court decision last month.

Should the bill be signed into law, Tehran would be required to ask Washington for compensation for, among other things, its misappropriating of Iranian assets frozen in the US banks under various pretexts.

In April, the US Supreme Court ruled that about $2 billion in Iran’s frozen assets be turned over to the American families of the people killed in a 1983 bombing in Beirut and other attacks allegedly blamed on Iran.

Outspoken legislator Hamid Rasa’ei proposed an amendment to the bill as it was being debated by the lawmakers, saying Iran should "seize US assets" passing through the Strait of Hormuz in response, Press TV reported.

“If the US should seek to misappropriate the Iranian nation’s assets, the strait must be turned into an insecure place for them and US vessels banned from passing through it,” he said, noting that such a countermeasure would be both “logical and legal.”

Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said Iran's Supreme National Security Council had given the green light to take the case of the frozen assets to The Hague-based International Court of Justice.

Last month, President Hassan Rouhani said, “The government will never allow for the money that belongs to the Iranian nation be easily gobbled up by the Americans.”