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56 Opinion IRAN:
Icy blast from the US, warm overtures to Europe
bne IntelliNews
Already in the deep-freeze, US-Iran relations suffered another icy blast on October 3 as Washington announced it was scrapping a decades-old friendship treaty with the Iranians after Tehran successfully cited the document in an international court case against the Trump administration’s sanctions policy.
Simultaneously, Iran attempted to add warmth to its relations with Europe as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani praised the EU for taking a “big step” towards preserving business with his country despite Washington’s demands that the Europeans should fall in line with its renewed heavy sanctions regime.
"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," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on October 3, referring to the year of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Pompeo acted after the top UN court ordered the US to
ease sanctions it reimposed on Iran following the unilateral withdrawal of Washington in early May from the 2015 multilateral nuclear accord between Tehran and six world powers.
The 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights called for "friendly relations" between Iran and the US. It also encouraged mutual trade and investment, regulated diplomatic ties, and granted the International Court of Justice (ICJ), sometimes referred to as the World Court, jurisdiction over disputes.
ICJ decisions on disputes between UN member states are binding and cannot be appealed. But the court has no mechanism with which to enforce its decisions.
US President Donald Trump is attempting to throttle Iran’s economy with sanctions. He wants to force Tehran to reshape its role in Middle East affairs.
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Air disasters in Iran in recent years have been blamed on previous sanctions that left the country’s aircraft fleets in a rotten state. The World Court says aviation imports should be allowed as “humanitarian”. Iran managed to acquire some Airbus planes before US sanctions snapped back.
The sanctions squeeze has had a severe effect on Iran's economy. The value of the Iranian rial has plummeted, inflation – by some estimates – is running at 250% and
foreign investors have fled the country fearing exposure to secondary sanctions levied by the US. By November 5, Trump wants to see a complete worldwide embargo on Iranian oil exports. If enough countries join that embargo, it could deal a potential knockout blow to the Iranians' economic situation.
Iran pushed back against the reinstatement of sanctions – under the nuclear deal abandoned by Trump it was protected from heavy sanctions in return for compliance with measures that curbed its nuclear development programme – in a case filed in July at the ICJ in The Hague. The US was guilty of "economic aggression" and the sanctions breached the friend- ship treaty between the two countries, the Iranians argued.
US lawyers countered that the reimposition of the sanctions was legal and a national security measure that could not be challenged at the UN court.
ICJ: Allow "humanitarian" goods
In a preliminary ruling, the ICJ said on October 3 that exports of "humanitarian" goods such as medicines and medical devices, food, and agricultural commodities" should be allowed, as should shipments of aviation safety equipment.
US sanctions stopping the flow of such goods did indeed breach the treaty, the court said. The court's president, Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, said the 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".
Sanctions on aircraft spare parts, equipment, and associated services have the "potential to endanger civil aviation safety in Iran and the lives of its users”, he added.