2 yıl önce

US illegally froze Iranian assets, Tehran tells top UN court

Iran accuses the United States of creating an "industry of litigation" over terror claims against Tehran, as it opens its bid at the UN's top court to unfreeze billions of dollars in assets frozen by Washington.

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The ICJ is the top court of the United Nations and was set up after World War II to resolve disputes between member states.

Iran has told judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague that the United States has created an "industry of litigation" against Tehran in breach of international law.

Lawyers for Iran, which brought its case to the ICJ in 2016, accused Washington on Monday of having breached a 1955 friendship treaty by allowing American courts to confiscate assets from Iranian companies, including $1.75 billion from Iran's central bank.

This was done to award damages to victims of what the United States said were terrorist attacks sponsored by Iran. Tehran denies supporting terrorism.

ICJ case

The 1950s friendship treaty was signed long before Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed shah, and the subsequent severing of US-Iranian relations.

After Iran filed two claims based on the 1955 treaty — which accords the ICJ jurisdiction — Washington formally withdrew from the accord in 2018.

The United States will plead its side of the case on Wednesday. In earlier hearings, lawyers for Washington argued that the court should throw out Iran's claims because Tehran itself had violated the 1950s treaty by allegedly sponsoring international terrorism.

The ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the United Nations' top court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though the ICJ has no power to enforce them, and the United States and Iran are among a handful of countries to have disregarded its decisions.