ICJ hears Iran Challenge to US Sanctions

Iran has called on International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order the US to lift the sanctions that Washington has re-imposed on the Middle East country after withdrawing from the nuclear accord known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and torpedoing all plans by European countries and companies to revive trade and investment projects.

According to the lawsuit, the renewed sanctions are damaging the already weak Iranian economy, even before a second set is due to hit Iran's oil industry in November. Iran says the sanctions also violate the terms of a bilateral friendship pact, the 1955 Treaty of Amity.

The US “is publicly propagating a policy intended to damage as severely as possible Iran’s economy and Iranian national companies, and therefore inevitably Iranian nationals,” the country’s representative, Mohsen Mohebi, said at the start of four-day hearing.

Separately, news agencies quote Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as accusing the US of waging a “psychological war” against the country and its business partners.

 In an initial written statement, the US State Department said it believes the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the case, and that the little known treaty has not been violated – a position the court upheld in a prior dispute.

According to reports, the ICJ could rule within the next month but is not bound by any time limit.

In early August, the EU introduced safeguards for member states whose companies want to invest in Iran. In the petrochemical industry, however, European heavyweights that had planned to return to the country under the shield of the JCPOA changed course to avoid being barred from the much bigger US market. Total and BASF have already signaled they will pull out.