IRAN yesterday rejected a U.S. court order for Tehran to pay US$180 million in damages to a Washington Post reporter for jailing him on espionage charges.

Jason Rezaian spent 544 days in an Iranian prison before he was released in January 2016 in exchange for seven Iranians held in the United States.

On Friday, a U.S. district court judge ordered damages be paid to Rezaian and his family in compensation for pain and suffering as well as economic losses.

The Iranian foreign ministry’s spokesman described the journalist’s decision to seek damages as “strange.”

Relations between Tehran and Washington plunged to a new low in May last year when the U.S. withdrew from an international accord that gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Rezaian and three other Americans were released Jan. 16, 2016. (SD-Agencies)