When student demonstrators overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November four, 1979, the arena did now not realize how Iran’s new revolutionary authorities could reply. Just 9 months in advance, Iran’s own deputy prime minister had led a contingent of Revolutionary Guards to quit a similar siege and positioned the embassy facility again underneath American control. In November, the Iranian authorities’ legitimate reaction became constrained to a
declaration of sympathy for the scholars—an technique directed by using the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, whose supporters had spent the previous yr steadily consolidating manipulate at some point of u. S .. “[T]he motion took nowadays using a group of our countrymen,” the statement stated, “replicate[s] the feeling of the Iranian country closer to the U.S. Government’s dismiss,” in particular when it comes to its current choice to admit the deposed Shah of Iran into the US for scientific remedy.
These phrases had been extra than only a rhetorical jab. By refusing to interfere as the embassy facility and dozens of Americans located there were taken hostage, the Iranian government violated a widely reputable set of global legal rules that perform a foundational position in global relations. Within days, what changed into arguably Iran’s ultimate secular authorities resigned in protest over this reaction, officially ceding manage to Khomeini’s Revolutionary Council. This no longer most effective ended any hopes for a fast decision to the crisis but set the degree for an unexpected and severe rupture in what had been one of the location’s defining bilateral relationships—and a growing divide between Iran and the international network.
The international legal dispute that resulted from the Iran hostage crisis continues to have ramifications at present in how Iran and the USA have interacted. Yet, in recent years, the events’ positions have taken an ironic twist. Whereas the USA used global regulation to assist set progressive Iran on the route to becoming a pariah country, it has since severed its personal ties to most of the international prison establishments that it once relied upon for this purpose. And whilst modern Iran fervently rejected any outside intervention, modern Iran has increasingly sought the international community’s help in securing relief from diverse U.S. Policies it claims are illegal.
Bringing the Hostage Crisis to Court
The initial U.S. response to the fall of the embassy—followed a day later via the seizure of deserted U.S. Consular facilities in Shiraz and Tabriz—become especially muted. U.S. Officers were hoping the Iranian government might another time step in to clear up the state of affairs and quietly set about seeking to open diplomatic channels for negotiations. As those hopes dimmed, America started to freeze U.S.-based totally Iranian assets and installation other financial measures to relaxed a few leverages over the Iranian authorities. And it initiated an extra competitive diplomatic approach
aimed toward mobilizing the worldwide community in opposition to Iran’s actions.
Iran’s revolution, 40 years under this strategy, the United States submitted a declare to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on November 29, 1979, alleging that Iran’s failure to oppose the pupil demonstrators’ moves violated sure key global felony obligations regarding the remedy of overseas embassies and diplomatic employees. Officials initially were hoping to pair this claim with U.N. Security Council resolutions multilateralizing the economic sanctions it had already imposed on Iran, but their efforts to relaxed anything extra than rhetorical opposition to Iran’s actions have been stymied by Russia’s veto. This left the ICJ as the principal channel of recourse within the U.N. Machine.
The U.S. Claims were rooted within the
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations(VCDR) and
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), multilateral treaties that codify long-status guidelines regarding diplomatic and consular members of the family among states, inclusive of responsibilities to recognize the inviolability of overseas embassies and diplomatic personnel. The United States additionally cited certain standards of treatment in 1955
Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights, which Iran and the USA had signed quickly after a controversial U.S.-sponsored coup d’etat restored the shah to power following a previous length of political unrest. All 3 treaties subjected relevant disputes to the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ—the Treaty of Amity without delay, and the VCDR and VCR via separate
elective
protocols. This provided the US with the hook it had to bring its claim before the ICJ, whose jurisdiction is restricted to circumstances consented to by the parties.
