Iran lodges complaint against US over renewed sanctions

THE HAGUE: Iran has called on the UN’s top court to order the United States to immediately lift sanctions re-imposed by President Donald Trump in May claiming they are causing “irreparable prejudice,” the tribunal said Tuesday.

Tehran filed its case with the International Court of Justice on Monday arguing that the renewed sanctions, which had been lifted under a 2015 nuclear deal, violate a decades-old treaty between the two old foes.

“Iran maintains that its application relates to the decision of the United States of 8 May 2018 ‘to re-impose in full effect and enforce’ sanctions and restrictive measures targeting, directly or indirectly, Iran and Iranian companies and/or nationals,” the ICJ said in a statement.

Through the sanctions the US “has violated and continues to violate multiple provisions” of a 1955 Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations, which was concluded before the Islamic revolution under the regime of the shah. Over the objections of allies, Trump in May pulled the United States from the nuclear deal signed between Tehran and world powers in 2015. He reimposed US sanctions that had been suspended in return for controls on Tehran’s nuclear programme, effectively barring many multinational firms from doing business in Iran. The goal of turning to the ICJ is “to hold (the) US accountable for its unlawful re-imposition of unilateral sanctions,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote earlier in the day 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.

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 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.