US terminates 'treaty of amity' with Iran after UN court ruling

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday announced the US is canceling the 1955 treaty with Iran establishing economic relations and consular rights between the two nations. 

"I am announcing today that US is terminating the treaty of amity with Iran," Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.

The announcement follows a ruling by the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordering the United States to lift sanctions on Iran that affect imports of humanitarian goods. 

Iran says the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration after its withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran violated the Treaty of Amity.

Pompeo told reporters that the termination of the treaty was decades overdue. 

"This is a decision, frankly, that is 39 years overdue," Pompeo said, referring to the date of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iran slams 'outlaw regime' of US

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the US as an "outlaw regime", after Washington said it was withdrawing from the 1955 accord.

"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.

Pompeo says Iran abusing ICJ

The US secretary of state said Iran was abusing the ICJ for political and propaganda purposes and that Iran's claims under the 1955 treaty were "absurd."

Pompeo also blamed Iran for threats to American missions in Iraq.

"Our intelligence in this regard is solid. We can see the hand of the Ayatollah and his henchmen supporting these attacks on the United States."

Earlier on Wednesday, judges at the ICJ handed a victory to Tehran, in a ruling widely seen as a rebuke to US President Trump – but which Pompeo described as a "defeat for Iran."

Pompeo, however, said the US will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Iran, but said Tehran was squandering money it could use for helping its people.