UN COURT: IRAN CAN PROCEED TO RECOVER ASSETS FROZEN BY US

THE HAGUE: The International Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that Iran can proceed with a bid to recover billions of dollars in frozen assets the US says must go to victims of attacks blamed on Tehran.

Judges of the UN’s top court rejected US claims that the case should be thrown out because Iran had “unclean hands” due to alleged links to terrorism, and that the tribunal in The Hague did not have jurisdiction in the lawsuit. The court will hold further hearings to decide whether Iran can get back $2 billion frozen by the US Supreme Court in 2016.

Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, the chief judge at the ICJ, said the court “unanimously rejects the preliminary objections to admissibility raised by the United States of America”.

The court also “finds that it has jurisdiction” to rule on the case, which was filed by Iran in 2016, Yusuf said after reading of the judgment. Iran said the freezing of the funds breached the 1955 Treaty of Amity with the US, signed before Iran’s Islamic Revolution.