Iran rejected on Thursday a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court the day before that clears the way for families of victims of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and other attacks linked to Iran to collect nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

The state IRNA news agency quoted the spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, as saying that "such a verdict is a theft of the assets and properties of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

From the United Nations, Ansari spoke to IRNA and said the ruling is "tantamount to ridiculing justice and law and it does not create any right for the US nationals."

He added that Iran considers the U.S. government responsible for compensating any damages that Iran might incur from the verdict.

The U.S. court's ruling directly affects more than 1,300 relatives of victims, some who have been seeking compensation for more than 30 years. They include families of the 241 U.S. service members who died in the Beirut bombing.

Iran denies any links to the attacks and has said it had no role in the deadly events in the Lebanese capital.