US: UN top court has no say on Iran sanctions
August 28, 2018
The United Nation's top court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has no jurisdiction to rule on the Trump administration's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran, US government attorneys insisted on Tuesday.
US State Department attorney Jennifer Newstead's remarks came on the second day of ICJ hearings in The Hague. Iran filed a suit against the US last month over its decision to reimposed sanctions after it withdrew from the nuclear accord.
Lawyers from Tehran insist that sanctions targeting financial transactions and imports of raw materials, cars and aircrafts breach the little-known 1955 US-Iranian Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations.
However, Newstead told ICJ judges on Tuesday that the court "lacks prima facie jurisdiction to hear Iran's claims."
She went on to argue that the US had the right to withdraw from the nuclear accord "in recognition of the threat that Iran's behavior continues to pose to the national security, foreign policy and the economy of the US."
The 1955 treaty "cannot therefore provide a basis for this court's jurisdiction" in the case, Newstead said before the hearing adjourned until Wednesday.
By failing to maintain diplomatic relations since 1980, both sides have for several decades effectively ignored the 1955 treaty, which was signed two years after a US-backed coup helped return the Shah to power in Iran.
Read more: US reimposes sanctions on Iran: What does that mean?
Iran's economic plight
As Iran presented its case before the court on Monday, the lawyer representing the Islamic Republic, Mohsen Mohebi, condemned the US sanction as "naked economic aggression."
"The United States is publicly propagating a policy intended to damage as severely as possible Iran's economy and Iranian nationals and companies," Mohebi added.
Iran is in the midst of a deepening economic crisis as a result of the Trump administration's decision to reimpose sanctions this month.
However, the US's withdrawal from the Iran deal has already disrupted tens of billions of dollars' worth of investment. Several international companies, including French energy giant Total and German industrial conglomerate Siemens, have suspended operations in Iran following US President Donald Trump's announcement in May that the US was quitting the multilateral nuclear accord. Iran's rial currency has lost almost half its value since April.
The State Department is set to introduce a second wave of punitive sanctions in November, this time targeting its crucial energy sector.
Newstead insisted Tuesday that Iran's economic woes had "deep roots in the Iranian government's mismanagement of its own economy and repression of its own population."
Read more: Rouhani: Iran citizens 'lost faith in Islamic republic'
The hearing over US sanctions is expected to continue for several weeks, although it could take several years for the ICJ to reach a final decision.
ICJ judgements are binding without the chance to appeal. However, both the US and Iran have in the past ignored ICJ ruling against them.
dm/kms (AFP, dpa)