Tehran takes sanctions battle to United Nations
Iran yesterday demanded the UN’s highest court suspend US nuclear-linked sanctions against Tehran, accusing Washington of plotting its “economic strangulation”.
The Islamic republic filed suit at the International Court of Justice against President Donald Trump’s decision to reimpose the sanctions lifted by a 2015 accord.
Iran says Trump’s move breaches a 1955 treaty with the US and told the court the measures were threatening the welfare of its citizens.
Lawyer Mohsen Mohebi told the ICJ Iran would put up the “strongest resistance to the US economic strangulation, by all peaceful means”.
US lawyers are due to give their response to the court today.
The US measures have added to Iran’s economic woes, helping to fuel strikes and protests across the country. Iran’s parliament impeached Finance Minister Masoud Karbasian on Sunday and President Hassan Rouhani, whose labour minister was dismissed by MPs this month, was summoned for questioning today.
A second wave of punitive measures are due to hit Iran in early November, targeting its energy sector, including oil exports.
Iran has called on the other parties to the nuclear deal to resist US pressure to isolate Tehran. In a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday, Mr Rouhani said Tehran expected the remaining partners to act quickly to preserve the agreement.
“Iran has acted upon all its promises in the nuclear agreement and, with attention to the one-sided withdrawal of America ... expects the remaining partners to operate their programmes more quickly and transparently,” the staterun Irna reported.
Tehran filed its case before the ICJ late last month, calling on the court to order the immediate lifting of sanctions pending a definitive ruling.
It said the sanctions would cause it “irreparable prejudice” and were in breach of the 1955 Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations.
The ICJ is expected to take a couple of months to decide whether to grant Tehran’s request for a provisional ruling.
A final decision in the case could take years.
Mr Trump, who took office last year, described the 2015 deal as “horrible” and “one-sided”.
He pulled the US out of the accord in May, although the other parties said they would stick with the agreement.
Iran’s lawyers said the American sanctions threaten tens of billions of dollars’ worth of business deals with foreign companies.
European companies including Total, Peugeot and Renault in France, and Siemens and Daimler in Germany, suspended their operations in Iran after the US withdrew from the nuclear deal.
Air France and British Airways announced last week they would halt flights to Tehran next month, saying they were not commercially viable. The British airline said the decision was unrelated to the new sanctions.
Mr Trump said the sanctions would turn up the financial pressure on Tehran to come to a “comprehensive and lasting solution” regarding activities such as its “ballistic missile programme and its support for terrorism”.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this month appeared to rule out any immediate prospect of talks, saying “there will be neither war nor negotiations” with the US.
Experts expect the US to challenge the ICJ’s jurisdiction.
At the start of the hearings yesterday, the court’s president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, leading a 15-judge panel, urged the US to respect any provisional decision the court may make.
The ICJ was established in 1945 to rule in disputes between countries. Although the court’s decisions are binding, it does not have the power to enforce them. The US and Iran have clashed at the court in the past since they became enemies after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran ignored a 1980 US action at the ICJ over the seizure of American diplomats in Tehran, which the court found to be illegal.
The ICJ ruled in 2003 that the 1955 treaty was still valid even though it was signed before the Islamic Revolution, but did not deem US actions against Iranian oil platforms nor Iranian attacks on American shipping to be in breach of the treaty.
Iran’s lawyers said the US sanctions threaten tens of billions of dollars’ worth of business deals with foreign companies.