Iranian President Hassan Rohani said Monday that the government would file a legal case in Iran against U.S. officials who imposed sanctions on the country as a precursor to action in international courts.
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Rohani said in a speech broadcast live on state television that U.S. sanctions had created difficulties including a weaker rial currency that has fed higher inflation.
Rohani said he had ordered the ministries of foreign affairs and justice “to file a legal case in Iranian courts against those in America who designed and imposed sanctions on Iran. ... These sanctions are crime against humanity,” he added.
Iranian complaints about sanctions in the international courts have occasionally succeeded. In October, judges at the International Court Of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United States to ensure sanctions do not affect humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety.
The sanctions should not affect exports to the territory of Iran of any goods required for humanitarian needs such as medicine, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs and agricultural commodities, as well as goods and services required for the safety of civil aviation,” judges said.
“It has become difficult if not impossible for Iran, Iranian nationals and companies to engage in international financial transactions” to purchase such goods, the court said.
According to the ICJ, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is violating the terms of a 1955 Treaty of Amity between the two countries.
During his speech, President Rouhani, declared that Iranians "were able to win in both the International Court of Justice in the Hague and the European courts, which means that we were able to legally defeat America, and of course, this trend should continue."
The United States re-imposed sanctions on Tehran after the unilateral decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last May despite the fact that Iran was in compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal.
“The Americans have only one goal: they want to come back to Iran and rule the nation again,” Rohani said.