Iran complains on new US sanctions
Tehran, July 17: Iran 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. Iran and the US have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, when American embassy officials were held hostage in Tehran.
Nuclear-related sanctions will be reimposed by US in two phases in August and November.
Nuclear-related sanctions will be reimposed by Washington in two phases in August and November, seeking to bar European and other foreign companies from doing business with Iran and blocking its oil sales abroad.
Iran and the other signatories to the 2015 agreement have been scrambling to preserve the limited trade deals they were able to secure since it was signed.