Swiss court backs Iran in decades-old oil row with Israel

Switzerland’s highest court has ordered Israel to pay Iran around $1.1 billion (CHF1.07 billion) plus interest in a decades-old dispute over a secretive oil pipeline company. The dispute predates the 1979 Islamic revolution, which made the two countries enemies. The Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne rejected an appeal, citing lack of due process, against an arbitration ruling last year. The verdict, dated June 27, was available on the court’s website. It also awarded Iran CHF450,000 ($460,000) in court costs and lawyer fees, Reuters news agency reported on Thursday. It remains unclear whether Israel will pay up given restrictions in its “trading with the enemy” laws. Lawyers for each side had been locked in an arbitration over the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co (EAPC), a joint venture set up in 1968, when the two nations were friendly, to transport Iranian oil to the Mediterranean. For a decade, the pipeline successfully carried oil from the Red Sea for export to Europe.