US asks ICC to throw out Iran sanctions case

The United States urges the UN’s top court to throw out a bid by Iran to lift sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump, saying Tehran remained a “grave threat” to global security.

Iran brought the claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2018, alleging that Trump’s decision to pull out of a nuclear pact with Tehran breached a 1955 treaty of friendship between the two countries.

But US lawyers argue that the Hague-based tribunal does not have jurisdiction in the case, accusing Iran of abusing the decades-old “Treaty of Amity” to try to get sanctions relief for its struggling economy.

“Iran’s efforts to shoehorn this dispute into a legal instrument not intended for the purpose… are entirely without merit,” Marik String, Acting Legal Adviser of the US State Department, tells the court via videolink.

“We respectfully request dismissal of Iran’s case.”

The US official says the sanctions were necessary because of Iran’s “destabilizing nuclear program,” its ballistic missile activity, Tehran’s alleged support for “terrorism and regional destabilization.”

“The measures that Iran challenges remain critical to US efforts to address national security threats posed by Iran,” String says, adding that Washington had “long considered Iran’s conduct to present a grave threat.”

Iran will have the chance to answer on Wednesday, with hearings lasting until next Monday.

The current hearings deal only with whether the ICJ has jurisdiction. The tribunal will only move on to the merits of the case if and when it decides it is allowed to deal with it.

— AFP