Rouhani says Iran will file legal case against U.S. for sanctions

[March 18, 2019]  LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that the government would file a legal case in Iran against U.S. officials who imposed sanctions on the country as a precursor to action in international courts.

Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television that U.S. sanctions had created difficulties including a weaker rial currency that has fed into higher inflation.

The United States reimposed sanctions on Tehran after U.S. President Donald Trump chose last May to abandon Iran's 2015 nuclear accord, negotiated with five other world powers.

Rouhani said he had ordered the ministries of foreign affairs and justice "to file a legal case in Iranian courts against those in America who designed and imposed sanctions on Iran". "These sanctions are crime against humanity," he added.

If the Iranian court finds against the U.S. officials, Iran will pursue the case in international courts of justice, the president said.

Iranian complaints about sanctions in the international courts have occasionally succeeded. In October, judges at the International Court Of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United States to ensure sanctions do not affect humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety, a small victory for Tehran.

"The Americans have only one goal: they want to come back to Iran and rule the nation again," Rouhani said, reiterating Tehran's view that U.S. sanctions are aimed at overthrowing the government and ushering in one more aligned with U.S. policies.

Rouhani said the government had managed to "put a brake on the fall of rial" but that balance has not yet returned to the foreign currency market.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gestures to the crowd at a public speech in Bandar Kangan, Iran March 17, 2019. Official Iranian President website/Handout via REUTERS

The rial was trading at 131,500 per U.S. dollar on Monday on the unofficial market, almost three times weaker than a year ago, but off record lows around 190,000 hit in late September.

Iranian central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati also accused Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other U.S. officials on Monday of waging a "psychological war" to stir panic in the currency market.

Hemmati was quoted as saying by state media that "the central bank is in full control of the market".

The U.S. sanctions permit trade in humanitarian goods such as food and pharmaceuticals but measures imposed on banks, and trade restrictions, could make such items more expensive as well as more difficult to pay for.

Trump said when he pulled out of the landmark 2015 deal that lifted international sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its atomic activities that it failed to rein in Iran's missile program or curb its regional meddling.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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