*TEHRAN – Iran will argue Monday against renewed sanctions imposed by theUnited States, as a bitter legal battle between Tehran and Washington opensbefore the UN’s top court.*
US President Donald Trump reimposed a wave of tough unilateral sanctions onIran three weeks ago, bringing back into effect harsh penalties that hadbeen lifted under a landmark 2015 agreement.
A second round of measures is to come into effect in early November,targeting Iran’s valuable oil and energy sector.
Tehran filed its case before the International Court of Justice in lateJuly, calling on the Hague-based tribunal’s judges to order the immediatelifting of sanctions, which it said would cause “irreparable prejudice.”
The US had no right to reinstate such measures, Tehran added, as itdemanded compensation for damages.
Iran maintained restoring the penalties lifted under the historic 2015deal, aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, violated a decades-oldtreaty signed between the two nations in 1955.
The ICJ — set up in 1946 to rule in disputes between countries — isexpected to take a couple of months to decide whether to grant Tehran’srequest for a provisional ruling, while a final decision in the case mayactually still take years.
Trump described the 2015 deal between Iran and the five permanent membersof the United Nations Security Council, as well as Germany, as a “horribleone-sided deal (that) failed to achieve the fundamental objective ofblocking all paths to a Iranian nuclear bomb.”
Even though all of the other parties pleaded with him not to abandon thepact, Trump pulled out and announced he would reinstate sanctions.
*‘Neither war, nor negotiations’*
Tehran — which argues that the move violates the little-known 1955 Treatyof Amity and Economic Relations — says that the new sanctions are alreadyhurting its economy. Iran’s currency the rial has lost around half itsvalue since April.
A raft of international companies — including France’s Total, Peugeot andRenault, and Germany’s Siemens and Daimler — have suspended operations inIran in the wake of the move.
Both Air France and British Airways announced Thursday they were haltflights to Tehran next month, saying they were not commercially viable, butthe British carrier added the decision was unrelated to the new tranche ofsanctions.
In his executive order, Trump argued that the sanctions would turn up thefinancial pressure on Tehran to come to a “comprehensive and lastingsolution” regarding activities that the international community regarded as“malign” such as Iran’s “ballistic missile programme and its support forterrorism.”
Earlier this month, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appearedto rule out any immediate prospect of talks, saying “there will be neitherwar, nor negotiations,” with the US.
Washington’s lawyers will present their case on Tuesday, with expertsbelieving they are to challenge the ICJ’s jurisdiction. – APP/AFP