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After ICJ verdict, US to terminate 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran

WION Web Team
Washington, DC, USAUpdated: Oct 03, 2018, 11:29 PM IST
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File photo: US President Donald Trump and Iran's President Hassan Rouhani. Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

The US had imposed sanctions against Iran after exiting the nuclear deal

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said the US will terminate the 1955 'Treaty of Amity' with Iran after the International Court of Justice(ICJ) ordered the Trump administration not to sanction humanitarian goods to Iran.

The US had signed the 1955 treaty before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution after relations between two countries deteriorated rapidly. Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic ties since 1980 after the hostage crisis triggered in the American embassy in Tehran in 1979.

President Trump had pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal last month citing misuse of funds by the Iran regime which the US president alleged the Rouhani government was using to fuel terrorism and reinforce its nuclear arsenal.

The US had imposed sanctions against Iran after exiting the nuclear deal with a second set of sanctions aimed at Iran's oil industry set to come into effect next month.

"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.

Pompeo asserted that the UN ruling was a 'defeat for Iran'. US ambassador to the Netherlands Pete Hoekstra had termed the ICJ order as a "meritless case" while asserting that the UN court did not have jurisdiction over the case.

Hoekstra added that ICJ had "declined to grant the sweeping measures requested by Iran" and it was "a narrow decision on a very limited range of sectors." However, Iran claimed victory claiming that it was a "clear sign" that "Iran is in the right".

Iran's foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif termed the United States as an "outlaw regime" as Pompeo announced that the Trump administration was withdrawing from the 1955 accord with Tehran following the ICJ verdict.

"Today US withdrew from an actual US-Iran treaty after the ICJ (International Court of Justice) ordered it to stop violating that treaty in sanctioning Iranian people. Outlaw regime," Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The world court called for US sanctions exception on "medicines and medical devices, food stuff and agricultural commodities as well as goods and services required for the safety of civil aviation such as spare parts, equipment and associated services necessary for civil aircraft."

The ruling by the International Court of Justice "once again shows that the US government... is day by day becoming more isolated," Iran's foreign ministry said in a statement. Iran's lawyers had told the UN court that Washington of "strangling" its economy.

After the ICJ verdict, Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the ruling was "another failure for sanctions-addicted US government and victory for rule of law".

The court said sanctions on goods "required for humanitarian needs... may have a serious detrimental impact on the health and lives of individuals on the territory of Iran." US sanctions also had the "potential to endanger civil aviation safety in Iran", it added.