Iran to sue over US pulling rug from under Persian carpet exports
The umbrella organization for Iranian carpet makers and sellers will sue the Trump administration for reimposing sanctions on Iran’s iconic rug industry, its chief declared Saturday.
When the 2015 nuclear agreement was signed by Iran and world powers, the United States lifted sanctions on Iranian carpets and foodstuffs that had been in place since 2010.
However the sanctions are set to return on August 6 as part of President Donald Trump’s staggered re-imposition of the biting measures following his government’s withdrawal from the nuclear pact.
On Saturday Fereshteh Dastpak, head of the Iranian National Carpet Center, said her organization would sue the US government through unspecified “international tribunals.”
"Hand-woven Iranian carpet belongs to the Iranian nation," Dastpak was quoted as saying by Iran’s state-run Press TV.
"The US President has wrongly sanctioned the art industry, which is a symbol of culture and intellectual property of the Iranian people."
Iran is known worldwide for its iconic traditional Persian rugs as well as more modern designs.
According to statistics cited by Iranian media, the US market was the most lucrative for Iranian sellers since the sanctions were loosened, making up some 30 percent of exports and valued at $80 million.
It is not clear on what legal basis any lawsuit would be filed. Dastpak was quoted as saying: "According to international protocols, what belongs to a nation could not be sanctioned.”
In July the International Court of Justice in The Hague said Iran had filed a case against the United States over the sanctions reimposed as part of Trump’s attack on the nuclear deal.
According to the court, Iran claims the measures violate a 1955 treaty between the then-allies.
Several carpet sellers interviewed by the Washington Post earlier this month said they did not forsee any sudden price spikes in the Persian rug market because US buyers had bought so enthusiastically during the brief break in sanctions that inventories were brimming and would take a long time to deplete.
Other US allies have not taken any measures against the Iranian carpet industry, in line with a broader approach by the nuclear deal’s other signatories -- the EU, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany -- to try and salvage it.