The UN’s highest court on Thursday rejected Iran’s request to release nearly $2 billion in assets belonging to its central bank, frozen by the United States in retaliation for alleged terror attacks. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the request but also ruled that Washington had “violated” the rights of Iranian companies and nationals whose assets were also been frozen.
Funds seized to compensate American victims of terrorist attacks
American justice declared in 2016 that the funds seized were to be used to compensate Americans who were victims, according to it, of terrorist attacks fomented or supported by the Islamist Republic. Washington notably mentioned the death of 241 American soldiers killed on October 23, 1983 in two suicide attacks which had struck the American and French contingents of the Multinational Security Force in Beirut. Tehran denies any responsibility for these actions and argues that the US seizure of its financial assets is illegal.
“The court, by ten votes to five, upholds the jurisdictional objection raised by the United States of America,” said ICJ judge Kirill Gevorgian. The Iranian and US delegations declined to comment on the verdict following the hearing before the ICJ, created after World War II to adjudicate disputes between UN member states.
Crucial funds for Tehran
Iran initiated the procedure in 2016, believing that the blocked funds were crucial for the country, which faced economic difficulties after sanctions imposed by the West because of its nuclear program. In its request, Iran invoked a bilateral treaty signed between Tehran and Washington in 1955, which predated the 1979 Islamic revolution which overthrew the pro-American shah and led to the end of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Shortly after its withdrawal in 2018 from the Iranian nuclear agreement, Washington announced that it was officially ending the 1955 treaty.
Iran was seeking the return of $1.75 billion belonging to the Iranian Central Bank, or Bank Markazi, plus interest, plus assets belonging to Iranian nationals and companies. But the ICJ ruled that Iran’s central bank did not count as a business, contrary to what Tehran argued, and that only businesses were protected under the treaty.
24 months to get along
The court gave the two countries 24 months to agree on compensation for affected businesses and individuals. Its judgments are binding and cannot be appealed, but the court has no means of enforcing them. Countries can, however, turn to the UN Security Council if another state does not obey a decision. The judgment comes amid renewed tensions between the two countries after recent US airstrikes that targeted pro-Iranian groups in Syria and Tehran’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Iran has called US airstrikes targeting pro-Iranian groups in Syria a “terrorist attack” in response to a drone attack that killed at least 19 people, mostly Syrians, according to the Syrian Observatory of human rights (OSDH). Washington says it carried out the strikes after an ‘Iranian-made’ drone attack on a US-led international coalition base in northeastern Syria killed an American contractor.