The United States said Wednesday it was terminating a 1955 treaty reached with then ally Iran after Tehran cited it in an international court ruling against Washington's sanctions policy.
"I'm announcing that the US is terminating the 1955 Treaty of Amity with Iran. This is a decision, frankly, that is 39 years overdue," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters, referring to the date of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The UN's top court ordered the United States Wednesday to lift sanctions on humanitarian goods for Iran in a ruling widely seen as a rebuke to President Donald Trump -- but which Pompeo described as a "defeat for Iran."
