Iran to UN Court: End Illegal US Sanctions

Local Editor

Iran warned Monday that re-imposed US sanctions would cripple its economy and plunge the volatile Middle East deeper into crisis, as it urged the United Nations’ highest court to suspend the Trump administration’s economic pressure on Tehran.

The world court’s wood-paneled Great Hall of Justice in The Hague is the latest backdrop for Washington and Tehran’s high-stakes dispute about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Trump claimed the sanctions are needed to ensure Iran never builds a nuclear bomb. But Iran’s representative Mohsen Mohebi branded them “naked economic aggression.”

His team of lawyers told the court in The Hague the measures were already devastating Iran’s economy and threatening the welfare of its citizens. “Iran will put up the strongest resistance to the US economic strangulation, by all peaceful means.”

The United States, which argues that the court does not have jurisdiction in the case, is to present its legal arguments to judges Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the world court to “challenge 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.”

Iran filed a case with the court in July challenging the reimposition.

Tehran confirms that the sanctions breach a 1955 bilateral agreement known as the Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations that regulates and promotes economic and consular ties between the two countries.

At Monday’s hearings, Tehran asked judges to urgently order a suspension of the sanctions while the case challenging their legality is being heard – a process that can take years. A decision on the urgent request for a suspension is likely to take weeks.

Mohebi told the court the US sanctions are a clear breach of the 1955 treaty because they are “intended to damage, as severely as possible, Iran’s economy.” Mohebi also warned that the sanctions could exacerbate regional tensions.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team