Sanctions battle fought at U.N.’s highest tribunal
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Iran went to the United Nations’ highest court Monday in a bid to have U.S. sanctions lifted following President Trump’s decision earlier this year to reimpose them, calling the move “naked economic aggression.”
Iran filed the case with the International Court of Justice in July, claiming the sanctions imposed on May 8 breach a 1955 bilateral agreement known as the Treaty of Amity that regulates economic and consular ties between the two countries.
At hearings that started Monday at the court’s headquarters in The Hague, Tehran asked judges at the world court to urgently suspend the sanctions to protect Iranian interests while the case challenging their legality is being heard — a process that can take years.
In a written statement, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the legal move an attempt by Tehran “to interfere with the sovereign rights of the United States to take lawful actions, including re-imposition of sanctions, which are necessary to protect our national security.”
Trump said in May that he would pull the United States out of a 2015 agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and would reimpose sanctions on Tehran. Washington also threatened other countries with sanctions if they don’t cut off Iranian oil imports by early November.
Iranian representative Mohsen Mohebi told the court the U.S. decision was a clear breach of the 1955 treaty as it was “intended to damage, as severely as possible, Iran’s economy.”
The 2015 nuclear deal imposed restrictions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of most U.S. and international sanctions against Tehran. However, the deal came with time limits and did not address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its regional policies in Syria and elsewhere. Trump has repeatedly pointed to those omissions in referring to the accord as the “worst deal ever.”
Mohebi said the reimposition of sanctions was unjustified as Iran was abiding by the terms of the 2015 deal. He said sanctions are already having damaging effects on Iran’s economy and society and threaten to further destabilize the volatile Mideast.
“This policy is nothing but a naked economic aggression against my country,” Mohebi told the court.
Rulings by the world court, which settles disputes between nations, are final and legally binding. However, it remains to be seen if the U.S. would abide by a court order to suspend sanctions on Iran.