CASE CONCERNING UNITED STATES DIPLOMATIC AND
CONSULAR STAFF IN TEHRAN
Judgment of 24 May 1980
Facts:
In November 4, 1979, student militants of the group Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line barged into the US Embassy in Tehran and held US diplomats and consulars hostage for 444 days. The cause of the Iranian students’ action against the US was believed to be the latter’s grant of medical asylum to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its refusal to turn the Shah over for trial.
The US sought recourse before the international court, asking that the hostages be freed and that reparations be given to the US by the Iranian government for the latter’s failure to carry its international legal obligations. US averred that Iran was responsible due to its initial inaction to the crisis and its subsequent statement of support to the seizure.
Issue:
Whether or not Iran was liable to the United States for the seizure of the US embassy and the hostage-taking of the US nationals by the Iranian militants.
Ruling:
Iran was under obligation to make reparations for the injury caused to the United States.
Iran’s failure to take appropriate steps to protect the US embassy and Consulates was a violation of its obligations under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights between Iran and the United States. Iran had the international legal responsibility to keep the embassy inviolable. Iran was fully aware of its obligations but it did nothing to prevent the take over and the captivity of the US nationals.
Although the take-over of the embassy was not held to have been an act of the state, the consequent detention of the US nationals was attributed to Iran because of its approval and support to said detention, such act was a violation of the provisions in the aforenamed conventions and treaty. “Once organs of the Iranian State had thus given approval to the acts complained of and decided to perpetuate them as a means of pressure on the United States, those acts were transformed into acts of the Iranian State: the militants became agents of that State, which itself became internationally responsible for their acts.”
For its breaches, the Islamic Republic of Iran had incurred responsibility towards the United States of America. Iran is obliged to make reparations and to endeavor for the release of the hostages.
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