The recent political and economical issues in Iran are considered by many observers to be some of the most difficult in the 40 years of the Islamic Republic’s existence. 

The political leaders in Tehran are squeezed between their own people, who are sick of the system and want change, and US President Donald Trump, who is implementing sanctions against the system with one goal: for the clerics to change their behavior. 

The ongoing economic hardship has increased the anger among Iranians against their own rulers. The system is resisting the public’s demands for normalizing relations with the world and putting an end to what their suffering. Instead of change, the regime puts more people in prison. 

The tension is increasing due to the next round of sanctions on Iran’s oil, its main national income, while the clerics and their supporters are panicked and doing everything they can to prevent these sanctions before the date on Nov. 4.

Among its many threats, the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards have threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world's petroleum passes. To traverse the strait, ships pass through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman under the transit passage provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The regime may be bluffing about Hormuz, but it may play with different cards to spread fears in the region indirectly, to avoid losing the EU’s support base for violating international law.

Camelia Entekhabifard

The regime is possibly using such threats to divert attention and also out of desperation. Even during the so-called "Tanker War" phase of the Iran–Iraq War in 1984, when Iraq attacked the oil terminal and tankers at Iran's Kharg Island, Iranians did not close the Strait of Hormuz. The regime may be bluffing about Hormuz, but it may play with different cards to spread fears in the region indirectly, to avoid losing the EU’s support base for violating international law. 

For 40 years, the revolutionists cursed the United Sates. They occupied the US embassy in Tehran, took the American diplomats hostages for 444 days and took any occasion to burn the American flag. Last week, their lawyers brought a lawsuit against the United States to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, complaining of a treaty violation by the US.

Jaws dropped when the world heard that the clerics were presenting a case based on a little-known friendship treaty between the two countries during the time of the late king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The Islamic Republic, which stands on the pillars of hatred and animosity towards the United Sates, cannot change its ideology to suit itself. But now, to save themselves from the hungry army of Iranians who will rise against them soon, the clerics have found a trick that may help them survive at least for two years if the court orders the US to halt the sanctions while reviewing the case. 

“The US is publicly propagating a policy intended to damage as severely as possible Iran’s economy and Iranian national companies, and therefore inevitably Iranian nationals,” said Mohsen Mohebi, who is representing Iran. “This policy is plainly in violation of the 1955 Treaty of Amity.”

It was unbelievable. Their court case is further evidence of what lengths the regime will go to in order to survive: to claim a friendship with the United States.

  • Camelia Entekhabifard is an Iranian-American journalist, political commentator and author of “Camelia: Save Yourself By Telling the Truth” (Seven Stories Press, 2008). Twitter: @CameliaFard