Court rejects Iran claim on US reparations
By Nikki Tait in London
Published: November 7 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: November 7 2003 4:00
The US will not have to pay reparations to Iran for destroying three offshore oil production complexes belonging to the National Iranian Oil Company during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, the International Court of Justice ruled yesterday.
But The Hague-based court threw out US arguments that the attacks were justified "as measures to protect the essential security interests of the US". And it dismissed a counterclaim against Iran in which the Americans sought reparations on the grounds that Iran had violated treaty obligations by attacking vessels in the Gulf.
The ICJ decision ends an 11-year-old claim by Tehran that its oil exports were damaged when the US navy attacked the three Iranian platforms in October 1987 and April 1988. Iran filed the complaint with the United Nations-backed court in 1992, arguing that the destruction of the rigs violated a 1955 friendship treaty between the two countries - although diplomatic ties had already been severed following Iran's Islamic revolution.
Iran had claimed that the US had taken sides during the Iran-Iraq conflict, and had supplied Baghdad with weapons - an embarrassing reminder of how US attitudes to Saddam Hussein's regime changed over the past two decades.
The US countered that it had remained neutral during the eight-year war and only acted to defend its own security interests. It counterclaimed that Iran had violated the friendship treaty by "attacking vessels in the Gulf and otherwise engaging in military actions that was dangerous and detrimental to commerce and navigation between the US and Iran".
The court said the US measures were not necessary to protect security interests "as interpreted in the light of international law on the use of force". But by a 14 to 2 majority it also rejected Iran's claims that the attacks amounted to a US breach of treaty obligations.
The court said that the platforms involved in the 1987 attack had been under repair and not operational, so there was no trade in crude oil from those platforms between Iran and the US at the time. It said the same applied to the 1988 attack, because by that stage all trade in crude between Iran and US had been suspended under the oil embargo.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1066565702738Iran-EU trade increases significantly in 2003
Friday, November 07, 2003
IranMania News
IRANMANIA - According to Iran's State News Agency (IRNA), trade between the European Union and Iran increased significantly in the first six month of 2003, with Iranian exports up by 28% and imports up by 17% compared with the same period last year.
Iranian exports to the EU grew to 3.3 billion Euros in the first half of this year, up from 2.6 billion Euros in the first six months of 2002.
EU exports to Iran also grew from 3.7 billion Euros 4.3 billion Euros over the same period. If the trend continues the value of this year’s trade is likely to exceed last year’s total of 13.6 billion Euros by at least 1.6 billion Euros to its highest ever level.
The increase in Iranian exports was dominated by the rise in EU oil imports. It continued to be led by Italy, Iran’s biggest European oil market, whose imports from Iran reached 935 million Euros, up 19 million Euros on the first half of 2002.
The significant increase in Iran's oil exports was to the Netherlands and Spain. A 162 million Euro increase to 488 million Euros in purchases by the Netherlands, home of the Rotterdam oil spot market. But there was an even bigger increase of 188 million Euros to 479 million Euros in exports to Spain.
The continuing growth in EU exports was led by Iran’s three largest suppliers, Germany, Italy and France, whose sales together totaled nearly 3 billion Euros.
Figures from Eurostat show that while Spain consolidated itself as Iran’s fourth biggest trading partner, Sweden may replace it in the future, as it doubled its exports to Iran to 228 million Euros and increased its imports by over 160 percent to 387 million Euros.
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