US urges UN court to toss out Iranian case on frozen assets

The Hague, Netherlands: The US is urging the United Nations’ highest court to toss out a case filed by Iran that seeks to recover around $2 billion worth of frozen assets the US Supreme Court awarded to victims of a 1983 bombing in Lebanon and other attacks linked to Iran.

The hearing at the International Court of Justice is based on a bilateral treaty that the Trump administration terminated last week after the court ordered Washington to suspend some of the sanctions it re-imposed on Iran after withdrawing from the nuclear deal in May.

US State Department lawyer Richard Visek on Monday told the 15-judge panel that US objections to the court’s jurisdiction and admissibility “provide a clear basis for ruling that this case should not proceed to the merits.”