IRAN TAKES US TO ICJ OVER RENEWED SANCTIONS

Iran has lodged a complaint with the International Court of Justice against the United States’ reimposition of sanctions, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The complaint was registered the previous day, spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on the ministry’s website.

The goal is “to hold (the) US accountable for its unlawful re-imposition of unilateral sanctions,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter.

“Iran is committed to the rule of law in the face of US contempt for diplomacy and legal obligations. It’s imperative to counter its habit of violating (international) law,” he added.

The complaint came in response to Washington’s decision in May to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran.

Tehran says the action violates international obligations, including the 1955 Us-iran Treaty of Amity -- an agreement signed well before Iran’s 1979 revolution, but which is still invoked in ongoing legal battles. “This administration in the United States doesn’t know how to behave towards the world... it breaks international treaties as a tool. It is necessary to put a stop to this behaviour,” Zarif said.

Austrian ambassador Stefan Scholz, whose country currently holds the presidency of the European Union, said “unorthodox and innovative measures” were being considered to allow banking transactions to continue after US sanctions return.

The ICJ is already due to hear a complaint on October 8 that Iran lodged two years ago against the United States for freezing around $2 billion of its assets held abroad. TEHRAN AFP July17, 2018