International Court of Justice Declares Freezing of Part of Iran's Assets by US Illegal

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the freezing of a part of Iran's assets by the United States is illegal and a compensation is required to be paid, Vice-President of the Court Kirill Gevorgian said on Thursday.

The The United States violated its obligations under the Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights of 1955 with Iran, and thus has to pay compensation to Tehran for the consequences and violations of international obligations, according to Gevorgian.

The amount of compensation will be determined at a later stage of the proceedings, according to the court's decision.

Commenting on this development, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the ICJ ruling serves as another proof of the "legitimacy" of Iran's positions, as well as of the United States' "wrongful behavior."

At the same time, the ICJ ruled it had no jurisdiction over the case involving assets of the Iranian central bank worth nearly $2 billion that were frozen by the US, thus rejecting Iran's bid to unblock said assets.

"The court by ten votes to five upholds the objection to jurisdiction raised by the United States of America," Gevorgian said as he read the ruling.

In 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled that the frozen Iranian assets should be paid to families of the victims of the US Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983. This move prompted Tehran to bring this matter to the ICJ the same year.