TEHRAN – Iran has lodged a complaint with the International Court ofJustice against the United States’ reimposition of sanctions, the foreignministry said on Tuesday.
The complaint was registered the previous day, spokesman Bahram Ghasemisaid on the ministry’s website.
The goal is “to hold (the) US accountable for its unlawful re-imposition ofunilateral sanctions,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote onTwitter.
“Iran is committed to the rule of law in the face of US contempt fordiplomacy and legal obligations. It’s imperative to counter its habit ofviolating (international) law,” he added.
The complaint came in response to Washington’s decision in May to abandonthe 2015 nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran.
Tehran says the action violates international obligations, including the1955 US-Iran Treaty of Amity — an agreement signed well before Iran’s 1979revolution, but which is still invoked in ongoing legal battles.
Iran and the US have not had diplomatic relations since 1980, when Americanembassy officials were held hostage in Tehran.
Nuclear-related sanctions will be reimposed by Washington in two phases inAugust and November, seeking to bar European and other foreign companiesfrom doing business with Iran and blocking its oil sales abroad.
Iran and the other signatories to the 2015 agreement have been scramblingto preserve the limited trade deals they were able to secure since it wassigned.
Zarif addressed world diplomats and Iranian businessmen at a lavish Tehranhotel on Monday night, in a meeting designed as a show of continued mutualsupport in the face of US aggression.
“This administration in the United States doesn’t know how to behavetowards the world… it breaks international treaties as a tool. It isnecessary to put a stop to this behaviour,” Zarif said.
Austrian ambassador Stefan Scholz, whose country currently holds thepresidency of the European Union, said “unorthodox and innovative measures”were being considered to allow banking transactions to continue after USsanctions return.
“We are all in this together, since the EU is facing a net loss of 10billion euros ($11.7 billion) in lost trade with Iran next year,” Scholzsaid.
The ICJ is already due to hear a complaint on October 8 that Iran lodgedtwo years ago against the United States for freezing around $2 billion ofits assets held abroad. APP/AFP