Iran claims victory after UN court ruling, but decision is unlikely to affect sanctions
The United States yesterday rebuffed the UN’s highest court after the country was ordered to ensure that sanctions against Iran do not affect humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to the ruling by pulling out of a 63-year-old treaty with Iran that underpinned the legal case and which promised “enduring peace and sincere friendship” between the two countries.
He said the UN court’s ruling only a month before new US sanctions come into effect marked a useful moment to demonstrate the “absolute absurdity” of a treaty that predates the 1979 Revolution.
“We will see what the practical fallout is,” he told a news conference in Washington.
“The Iranians have been ignoring it for an awfully long time.”
The robust US response came after Iran secured a partial victory at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in a legal challenge to US President Donald Trump’s decision in May to restore sanctions against the regime.
Iran had claimed the sanctions breached the 1955 Treaty of Amity that also promoted economic and consular ties.
In a preliminary ruling, the courts said Washington must not reimpose sanctions on medicines, food and spare parts for civil aircraft.
The ruling did not go as far as Tehran had requested.
But Iran still claimed victory, with Foreign Minister Javad Zarif praising the ruling on Twitter as a “victory for the rule of law”.
The rulings of the court are binding, but the court has no powers to enforce its decisions.
Announcing his plan to end the 1955 treaty yesterday, Mr Pompeo said it should have been scrapped decades ago.
Diplomatic ties were cut following the 1979 Revolution and the takeover of the US embassy in Tehran.The snubbing of the UN court is the latest rejection of multilateral institutions by the United States.
National security adviser John Bolton said last month that the International Criminal Court, also in The Hague and set up to try people accused of human rights abuses, was “already dead to us”.