U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States has ended a treaty with Iran after the highest U.N. court ordered Washington to remove sanctions on Tehran that limit imports of humanitarian goods.
The International Court of Justice ordered the United States to lift sanctions on Iran involving medicine, food and airplane parts in the latest step in a legal battle over measures the Trump administration put back in place earlier this year.
Pompeo announced the termination of a 1955 treaty that established economic relations and consular rights between the two countries.
“This is a decision, frankly, that is 39 years overdue,” Pompeo said at a Washington news conference. “Iran is attempting to interfere with the sovereign rights of the United States to take lawful actions necessary to protect our national security. And Iran is abusing the ICJ for political and propaganda purposes.”
Iran had complained to the International Court of Justice about the United States’ move to reimpose sanctions that had been lifted under the 2015 international nuclear agreement violated the 1955 agreement.
The court said in a Wednesday ruling on provisional matters in the case that the U.S. sanctions could endanger civil aviation safety in Iran, and the measures affecting food, medicine and medical devices could have detrimental impacts on the health and lives of Iranians.
The ruling directed the United States to “remove, by any means of its choosing, any impediments” affecting the free import of products in those sectors.
It further called on both countries to “refrain from any action which might aggravate or extend the dispute before the court or make it more difficult to resolve.”
The court’s rulings are binding, but it does not have a way to enforce them.
Iran’s foreign ministry welcomed the court decision.
The U.S. had argued its national security concerns were sufficient to impose the sanctions, a move that came after President Donald Trump in May declared Iran non-compliant with the nuclear deal that had brought sanctions relief in exchange for limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
The U.N. atomic energy agency, which is in charge of monitoring the agreement, has reported Iran is in compliance.
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