Hizballah is Iran’s proxy and has been since its inception, so the court ruling is entirely justified. But Iran, knowing that the Obama administration hastens to do its bidding, is pressing that advantage in every way it can.
“President Rouhani: Iran Files Lawsuit against US at Hague,” Iran’s Fars News Agency, June 16, 2016 (thanks to Benedict):
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran has lodged a complaint with the International Court of Justice in the Hague against a recent court ruling by the US Supreme Court which authorized the transfer of $2 billion of Tehran’s frozen assets to the families of the victims of a 1983 bombing in Beirut.
“The US courts have issued illegal rulings and said that the properties should be provided to the Americans and the families of those people killed in Lebanon and it is not clear what the Americans did in Lebanon (at the time) and how the issue is related to Iran,” Rouhani said, addressing a ceremony in Tehran on Wednesday night.
“We shouldn’t remain silent vis a vis this event and we officially filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice yesterday (Tuesday) and will pursue the case until attaining results,” he added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon late April had also underlined that the country will take legal action against the US court ruling.
“Tehran reserves the right to take countermeasures in response to the decision made by the US Supreme Court,” Zarif wrote in his letter.
He said that in the past few years, the US has persistently engaged in a dangerous practice of defying international law and order by allowing private litigants to bring civil action before US domestic courts against sovereign states, including Iran.
“Trials have been organized in absentia; self-serving judgments have been obtained in default; and claims have been laid on the assets of the Iranian people,” the Iranian foreign minister said.
Also in May, Zarif blasted the US Supreme Court ruling, stressing that Iran doesn’t recognize it.
“The US has long been taking decisions against Iran which contradict the international laws and the Americans have filed different lawsuits against Iran during the past years; (but) we don’t recognize the US courts’ rulings,” Zarif said in a joint press conference with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki in Tehran.
Noting that he has raised the issue during his recent meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York on the sidelines of a UN conference, the Iranian top diplomat said, “We see the US administration as the responsible body with regard to this issue and if they encroach (confiscate Iran’s assets), we will claim compensation from the US administration.”
Zarif also announced formation of a special committee in the government to study the US decision to transfer Iran’s assets….