THE HAGUE: Iran demanded Monday that the UN’s top court order the United States to suspend nuclear-linked sanctions against Tehran, but Washington vowed to “vigorously” fend off the legal challenge.
The Islamic Republic launched a suit at the International Court of Justice over US President Donald Trump’s decision to reimpose sanctions that were lifted in a landmark 2015 accord.
Trump says the sanctions are needed to ensure Iran never builds a nuclear bomb. But Iran’s representative Mohsen Mohebi branded them “naked economic aggression.”
His team of lawyers told the court in The Hague that the measures were already devastating Iran’s economy and threatening the welfare of its citizens.
“The United States is publicly propagating a policy intended to damage as severely as possible Iran’s economy and Iranian nationals and companies,” Mohebi said.
“Iran will put up the strongest resistance to the US economic strangulation, by all peaceful means.”
US lawyers are due to give their response in arguments before the court on Tuesday, with experts expecting them to challenge the ICJ’s jurisdiction.
“We will vigorously defend against Iran’s meritless claims this week in The Hague,” said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
He said Iran’s lawsuit was “an attempt to interfere with the sovereign rights of the United States to take lawful actions, including re-imposition of sanctions, which are necessary to protect our national security.”
ICJ judgments are binding, final and without appeal.
However, whether any decision will be implemented remains unclear, with both Iran and the US in the past ignoring ICJ rulings against them.
The US measures have added to Iran’s economic woes, fueling strikes and protests across the country and political spectrum.
The sanctions target financial transactions and imports of raw materials, cars and aircraft among other sectors.
A second wave of punitive measures is due to hit the OPEC member state in early November, targeting its vital energy sector including oil exports.
Iran’s lawyers said the sanctions would cause it “irreparable prejudice.” They urged the court to order the suspension of the sanctions pending a definitive ruling.
London-based lawyer Samuel Wordsworth, for Iran, told the court the measures were threatening Iranians’ access to medicines as well as disrupting business deals.
The ICJ is expected to take a couple of months to decide whether to grant Tehran’s request for a provisional ruling. A final decision could take years.
After years of diplomacy, the 2015 deal was signed by Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.
Sanctions were lifted in return for Iran committing not to pursue nuclear weapons.
Trump, who took office in 2016, called it a “horrible one-sided deal.”
He said it “failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to a Iranian nuclear bomb.”
Iran’s lawyers said the US sanctions had disrupted tens of billions of dollars’ worth of business deals with foreign companies.
Iran’s currency the rial has lost around half its value since April.
International companies including French oil firm Total and Germany’s Siemens have suspended operations in Iran since Trump announced the US withdrawal in May.
Trump said the sanctions would turn up the financial pressure on Tehran to come to a “comprehensive and lasting solution” regarding its activities such as its “ballistic missile program and its support for terrorism.”
The case is the second brought by Tehran against Washington since 2016. That year it brought a suit at the ICJ against the freezing of around $2 billion of Iranian assets abroad which US courts say should go to American victims of terror attacks.
Hearings in that case are due to start on October 8.
In both cases Iran is basing its claim on the obscure 1955 Treaty of Amity and Economic Relations, signed long before the country’s Islamic revolution.
Despite the treaty, the two countries have not had diplomatic ties since 1980. Iran routinely refers to the US as “the enemy” and its officials chant “Death to America” at official functions.
Iran asks UN’s highest court to suspend US sanctions
Iran asks UN’s highest court to suspend US sanctions
- Iran warns re-imposed US sanctions would cripple its economy and plunge the volatile region deeper into crisis
- Pompeo calls Iran’s claims ‘meritless’ and defended the sanctions as a way of keeping Americans safe
Israel’s attorney general tells Netanyahu to reexamine extremist security minister’s role
- National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized for interfering in police matters
JERUSALEM, Nov 14 : Israel’s Attorney General told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reevaluate the tenure of his far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing his apparent interference in police matters, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
The news channel published a copy of a letter written by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in which she described instances of “illegitimate interventions” in which Ben-Gvir, who is tasked with setting general policy, gave operational instructions that threaten the police’s apolitical status.
“The concern is that the government’s silence will be interpreted as support for the minister’s behavior,” the letter said.
Officials at the Justice Ministry could not be reached for comment and there was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office.
Ben-Gvir, who heads a small ultra-nationalist party in Netanyahu’s coalition, wrote on social media after the letter was published: “The attempted coup by (the Attorney General) has begun. The only dismissal that needs to happen is that of the Attorney General.”
Israeli forces demolish Palestinian Al-Bustan community center in Jerusalem
- Al-Bustan Association functioned as a primary community center in which Silwan’s youth and families ran cultural and social activities
LONDON: Israeli forces demolished the office of the Palestinian Al-Bustan Association in occupied East Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Silwan, whose residents are under threat of Israeli eviction orders.
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Culture condemned on Thursday the demolition of Al-Bustan by Israeli bulldozers and a military police force.
The ministry said that “(Israeli) occupation’s arrogant practices against cultural and community institutions in Palestine, and specifically in Jerusalem, are targeting the Palestinian identity, in an attempt to obliterate it.”
Founded in 2004, the Al-Bustan Association functioned as a primary community center in which Silwan’s youth and families ran cultural and social activities alongside hosting meetings for diplomatic delegations and Western journalists who came to learn about controversial Israeli policies in the area.
Al-Bustan said in a statement that it served 1,500 people in Silwan, most of them children, who enrolled in educational, cultural and artistic workshops. In addition to the Al-Bustan office, Israeli forces also demolished a home in the neighborhood belonging to the Al-Qadi family.
Located less than a mile from Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s southern ancient wall, Silwan has a population of 65,000 Palestinians, some of them under threat of Israeli eviction orders.
In past years, Israeli authorities have been carrying out archaeological digging under Palestinian homes in Silwan, resulting in damage to these buildings, in search of the three-millennial “City of David.”
Israeli strike kills 12 after hitting civil defense center in Lebanon’s Baalbek, governor tells Reuters
- Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack
CAIRO: An Israeli strike killed 12 people after it hit a civil defense center in Lebanon’s city of Baalbek on Thursday, the regional governor told Reuters adding that rescue operations were ongoing.
Eight others, including five women, were also killed and 27 wounded in another Israeli attack on the Lebanese city, health ministry reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Lebanese civil defense official Samir Chakia said: “The Civil Defense Center in Baalbek has been targeted, five Civil Defense rescuers were killed.”
Bachir Khodr the regional governor said more than 20 rescuers had been at the facility at the time of the strike.
‘A symbol of resilience’ — workers in Iraq complete reconstruction of famous Mosul minaret
- Workers complete reconstruction of 12th-century minaret of Al-Nuri Mosque
- Tower and mosque were blown by Daesh extremists in 2017
High above the narrow streets and low-rise buildings of Mosul’s old city, beaming workers hoist an Iraqi flag into the sky atop one of the nation’s most famous symbols of resilience.
Perched precariously on scaffolding in high-vis jackets and hard hats, the workers celebrate a milestone in Iraq’s recovery from the traumatic destruction and bloodshed that once engulfed the city.
On Wednesday, the workers placed the last brick that marked the completed reconstruction of the 12th-century minaret of Al-Nuri Mosque. The landmark was destroyed by Daesh in June 2017 shortly before Iraqi forces drove the extremist group from the city.
Known as Al-Hadba, or “the hunchback,” the 45-meter-tall minaret, which famously leant to one side, dominated the Mosul skyline for centuries. The tower has been painstakingly rebuilt as part of a UNESCO project, matching the traditional stone and brick masonry and incorporating the famous lean.
“Today UNESCO celebrates a landmark achievement,” the UN cultural agency’s Iraq office said. “The completion of the shaft of the Al-Hadba Minaret marks a new milestone in the revival of the city, with and for the people of Mosul.
“UNESCO is grateful for the incredible teamwork that made this vision a reality. Together, we’ve created a powerful symbol of resilience, a true testament to international cooperation. Thank you to everyone involved in this journey.”
The restoration of the mosque is part of UNESCO’s Revive the Spirit of Mosul project, which includes the rebuilding of two churches and other historic sites. The UAE donated $50 million to the project and UNESCO said that the overall Al-Nuri Mosque complex restoration will be finished by the end of the year.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay celebrated the completion of the minaret by posting “We did it!” on social media site X.
She thanked donors, national and local authorities in Iraq and the experts and professionals, “many of whom are Moslawis,” who worked to rebuild the minaret.
“Can’t wait to return to Mosul to celebrate the full completion of our work,” she said.
The Al-Nuri mosque was built in the second half of the 12th century by the Seljuk ruler Nur Al-Din.
After Daesh seized control of large parts of Iraq in 2014, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of its so-called caliphate from inside the mosque.
Three years later, the extremists detonated explosives to destroy the mosque and minaret as Iraqi forces battled to expel them from the city. Thousands of civilians were killed in the fighting and much of Mosul was left in ruins.
US hands Lebanon draft truce proposal -two political sources
- The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Hezbollah
BEIRUT: The US ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon’s speaker of parliament Nabih Berri on Thursday to halt fighting between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources told Reuters, without revealing details.
The US has sought to broker a ceasefire that would end hostilities between its ally Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, but efforts have yet to yield a result. Israel launched a stepped-up air and ground campaign in late September after cross-border clashes in parallel with the Gaza war.
