The Hague: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) Wednesday ordered the US to ease sanctions it re-imposed on Iran after pulling out the 2015 nuclear deal. Siding with Tehran, the ICJ said exports of “humanitarian” goods, such as food and medicines, should be allowed, the BBC reported.
US President Donald Trump moved to restore tough sanctions on Iran in May after announcing he was abandoning Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. He said the deal had “failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb” and did not deal with Tehran’s “malign activities, including its ballistic missile programme and its support for terrorism”. Iran challenged the sanctions in a case filed in July at the court. The deal was originally signed between Iran and China, France, Russia, the UK, US plus Germany and the EU, which aimed to halt the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons programme in exchange for lifting of economic sanctions. Announcing the decision on Wednesday, the ICJ’s President Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf said: “The court considers that the US must remove, by means of its choosing, any impediment (…) to the free exportation to the territory of Iran of goods required for humanitarian needs.”
The US was ordered to remove curbs that would affect Iran’s civilian population, namely the ones restricting medicine and medical devices, food products and spare mechanical parts vital for infrastructure. However, the US argued that the court had no jurisdiction in the case as it concerned its national security. The rulings of the ICJ, the main judicial organ of the UN, are binding but the court has no power to enforce them. It settles legal disputes between member states. But both Washington and Tehran have in the past ignored the court’s rulings.
US ends Iran treaty
Washington: The United States said Wednesday it was terminating a 1955 treaty reached with then ally Iran after Tehran cited it in an international court ruling against Washington’s sanctions policy. “I’m announcing that the US is terminating the 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran. This is a decision, frankly, that is 39 years overdue,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters, referring to the date of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Agencies