THE HAGUE, Nov 6: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday handed Iran a moral victory by ruling that the United States was not justified in attacking its oil rigs during the Iran-Iraq war, but rejected Tehran’s claim for compensation.

In a complicated judgment that took over two hours to deliver, the UN’s top judicial body found that Washington had used “unjustified” force when its navy destroyed three Iranian oil rigs in 1987 and 1988.

The case, which has taken 11 years to come to a conclusion, recalled the close ties the government of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein once enjoyed with Washington.

“The court finds that the actions of the United States against Iranian oil platforms ... cannot be justified as a measure necessary to protect the essential security concerns of the US,” presiding judge Shi Juiyong said.

The judge rejected Iran’s claim for damages because the 1955 treaty that was the basis for the compensation demand could not be applied to the case.

He said the treaty guaranteeing freedom of commerce and navigation between the United States and Iran could not be invoked as there was no trade between the countries during the war that started in 1980, one year after diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed.

A counter-claim by the United States seeking damages from Tehran for using mines to blow up vessels in the Gulf was also dismissed. The US had based its claim on the same friendship treaty which the court ruled could not be invoked.

“The court finds that none of the ships alleged by the US to have been damaged by Iranian attacks was engaged in commerce or navigation between ... the two states,” said judge Shi.

When the case was heard by the court in February, Iran said the United States had not been neutral during the Iran-Iraq conflict and had even supplied Baghdad with chemical and biological weapons.

Lawyers for Washington argued that the United States remained neutral during the eight-year war, which cost at least one million lives, and merely acted to defend its security interests separately from Iran and Iraq.

During the latter part of the 1980-1988 war, ships belonging to third nations came under attack in Gulf waters and in order to protect its oil supplies, the United States reflagged vessels and provided naval escorts.

When Iranian forces hit a reflagged Kuwaiti vessel in Oct 1987, the United States retaliated by attacking Iranian oil installations. And in July 1988, an Iranian airliner carrying 290 passengers and crew were mistakenly shot down by a US warship.

The ICJ is the UN’s supreme highest judicial authority for disputes between nations, its rulings are binding and final. —AFP