Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday applauded a ruling by the International Court of Justice that it can hear Iran’s case against the US seeking to end sanctions, The Associated Press reported.
“I congratulate the Iranian people on a very big victory the government achieved yesterday at the Hague, and this is one of several victories that the government has gained against America at the tribunal,” said Rouhani, according to the report.
On Wednesday, the United Nations' highest court ruled that it can hear a case brought by Iran against the United States in a bid to end sanctions the Trump administration reimposed in 2018 after leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Lawyers for the United States argued at hearings last year that the case should be thrown out by the International Court of Justice for lack of jurisdiction and admissibility.
However, the court's president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, said that judges rejected US arguments.
Iran filed the case in July 2018, a few months after then-President Donald Trump left the 2015 nuclear deal reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
A year later, judges in the UN's top court rejected US claims that the case should be thrown out because Iran had "unclean hands" due to alleged links to terrorism, and that the tribunal in The Hague did not have jurisdiction in the lawsuit.
Iran had claimed the case breached a 1955 "Treaty of Amity" between Washington and Tehran signed before Iran's Islamic Revolution.
Washington tore up that treaty after the ICJ in a separate case ordered the United States to ease sanctions that were reimposed on Iran.