US rejects International Court of Justice ruling on Iran, continuing its isolationist charge

US rejects International Court of Justice ruling on Iran, continuing its isolationist charge

International Court of Justice ruling on Iran, continuing its isolationist charge

The Donald Trump administration this week continued its vocal rejection of multilateral bodies after it withdrew from an International Court of Justice (ICJ) protocol and pulled out of a 1955 friendship treaty with Iran.

US rejects International Court of Justice ruling on Iran, continuing its isolationist charge
US rejects International Court of Justice ruling on Iran, continuing its isolationist charge

The moves were triggered by an ICJ ruling Wednesday that Washington must ensure its sanctions don’t hit humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety for Iran — a ruling that is binding but cannot be enforced.

Top American officials chastised what they called Tehran’s “abuse” of the international court, with National Security Advisor John Bolton announcing that the U.S. would abandon the “optional protocol” under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a 1961 international treaty outlining diplomatic relations between states.

The 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran, meanwhile, signed between the Washington and the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran before he was overthrown in 1979, established friendly relations and the right to ICJ arbitration in case of disputes.

Throughout the last four decades, however, Iran and the U.S. have ignored each other’s complaints brought to the ICJ, and both countries’ policies toward one another have long violated the treaty.

‘Politicized and ineffective’

Bolton accused the ICJ, the UN’s Netherlands-based venue for settling international disputes, of being “politicized and ineffective.”

The decision to withdraw will limit U.S. exposure to ICJ rulings, which will simultaneously restrict its own ability to bring cases against other countries. It was also in response to a complaint brought by Palestine in September against the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“This really has less to do with Iran and the Palestinians than with the continued consistent policy of the United States to reject the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, which we think is politicized and ineffective,” Bolton said Thursday.

The current revival of U.S. sanctions on Iran stems from the Islamic Republic’s continued testing of ballistic missiles, human rights abuses and military or proxy engagement in conflicts around the Middle East.

Read More: CNBC

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