U.N. court orders U.S. to ease some sanctions
a rebuke to the Trump administration, the International Court of Justice ordered the United States on Wednesday to ease some sanctions against Iran, including those related to the supply of humanitarian goods and the safety of civil aviation.
In response, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would cancel a treaty signed in 1955 by the two countries that had provided a basis for friendly diplomatic exchanges and economic relations, long before Iran’s Islamic Revolution turned the two nations into enemies.
The interim ruling by the U.N’s’ highest court, also known as the World Court, came in response to an urgent plea from Tehran after President Trump’s announcement in May that he would withdraw from the 2015 international accord limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions. His decision was followed by a first round of sanctions in August and a second round is due in November.
The court order, unanimously handed down by its 15 judges, amounts to an injunction while Iran’s July lawsuit challenging the sanctions winds its way through the court — a process that could take years.
Iran, however, took the outcome as vindication.
“The decision proved once again that the Islamic Republic is right and the U.S. sanctions against people and citizens of our country are illegal and cruel,” the Foreign MinIn istry in Tehran said, according to state media.
During hearings in August, Iran argued that the U.S. was strangling the country “through naked economic aggression” and was violating the Treaty of Amity signed in 1955.
Lawyers for the United States had argued that Iran was misusing the court because it had no jurisdiction in the case since the dispute involves U.S. national security.