An arbitration team in Switzerland has recognized Iran’s right to receive of $50 million in compensation from Israel for the properties abandoned by Iran following the Islamic revolution, Ha’aretz reported.
This is the first decision in the international arbitration which has been conducted over the past 20 years between Israel and Iran on the lost rights of the Islamic Republic lost in the Eilat-Ashkelon Oil Pipeline (EAPC)
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According to the Ha’aretz, every decision in this arbitration is expected to meet objections and appeals, as well as secondary discussions on interest calculations and the gap between the value of currencies in 1979 and today.
This is by no means expected to be Israel’s only loss in this arbitration process, into which it had to be dragged kicking and screaming, and which it continues to oppose on legal grounds.
The scope of the compensation is based on half the value of the assets on eve of the 1979 Islamic revolution. But Iran is still far from getting this amount, or any amount for that matter. This decision represents a shift in the principles guiding the discussion, and the arbitration process will see numerous additional arguments and counter arguments, which must all be resolved before one penny travels from Israel back to Iran.
The Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline was directed jointly by Israel and Iran as a venture to move oil from Iran, unload it in Eilat, at the tip of the Indian Ocean, move it through the pipe to the Ashkelon harbor on the Mediterranean coast, and loaded on tankers headed for Europe.
When the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, EAPC was sitting on several oil tankers and approximately 800 thousand tons of crude Iranian oil, transferred just weeks before the revolution. It was valued then at $120 million, which translates into $400 million in today’s money.
