US abandons international accords, after ICJ orders lifting of some Iran sanctions

The ICJ order comes on complaints filed by Iran and the Palestine authority on the changes in Washington’s policies.

Speaking to reports US National Security Advisor John Bolton said the US will withdraw from the Vienna protocol and the 1955 `Treaty of Amity’ and slammed the UN court as “politicised and ineffective.” He said the United States would review all international agreements that could expose it to binding decisions by the ICJ.

On Wednesday, the ICJ had ordered the United States to ensure that sanctions against Iran, due to be tightened next month, do not affect humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety.

Tehran had argued that the US sanctions imposed since May by the Trump administration violated the terms their 1955 Treaty of Amity, a little-known agreement that was signed long before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that turned the two countries into arch enemies.

The ICJ, based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the United Nations’ venue for resolving disputes between nations.

In the nearly two years after assuming Presidency, Donald Trump has taken the United States out of a six-power nuclear agreement with Iran, pulled out of a global climate accord, left the UN cultural agency, and threatened NATO military allies that the United States would “go its own way” if members did not spend more on defence.

Bolton, citing what he called “Iran’s abuse of the ICJ,” said the United States would also withdraw from the “optional protocol” under the 1961 Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations.

“We will commence a review of all international agreements that may still expose the United States to purported binding jurisdiction, dispute resolution in the International Court of Justice,” Bolton said on Wednesday. “The United States will not sit idly by as baseless politicized claims are brought against us.”

The decision to withdraw from the optional protocol follows a complaint brought by the Palestinians in September, which challenged Washington’s decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.