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Donald Trump has positioned sanctions on Worldwide Legal Court docket officers who examine the US and its allies comparable to Israel, reintroducing a coverage from his first time period.
In an government order signed on Thursday, the US president positioned monetary sanctions and blocked visas for the ICC staff and their households, in a transfer that coincided with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s go to to Washington. The order additionally applies to officers who examine US residents.
The White Home didn’t instantly identify the officers who’ve been sanctioned.
The order says the courtroom is a menace to the “sovereignty” of the US that “undermines the important nationwide safety and overseas coverage work” of the nation and allies comparable to Israel.
ICC workers which are “accountable” for the courtroom’s “transgressions”, might have their property frozen and so they and their households may very well be blocked from getting into the US.
In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his then-defence minister Yoav Gallant “for crimes towards humanity and battle crimes”.
The transfer marked a dramatic escalation of authorized proceedings over Israel’s offensive in Gaza — which has killed about 47,000 individuals, in response to Palestinian officers — and marked the primary time the ICC issued a warrant for a western-backed chief.
The courtroom additionally issued a warrant for then-Hamas chief Mohammed Deif for crimes towards humanity and battle crimes over the group’s October 7 2023 assault on Israel that triggered the battle in Gaza.
The White Home mentioned that “by issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officers and Hamas officers on the identical time, the ICC created a shameful ethical equivalency”.
Trump’s government order mentioned the ICC’s “latest actions towards Israel and the US set a harmful precedent”, and that Washington “unequivocally opposes and expects our allies to oppose any ICC actions” towards the US or Israel.
Neither the US nor Israel are members of the courtroom, or recognise its authority.
The ICC didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The warrants for Israeli officers obliged the ICC’s member states — which embrace most European and Latin American nations, in addition to some in Asia and Africa — to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant in the event that they crossed their borders, though the courtroom has no enforcement mechanism.
Joe Biden’s White Home condemned the warrants once they had been issued. France, an ICC member and US ally, in November mentioned Netanyahu could have immunity from arrest as a result of Israel was not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the courtroom.
The impartial courtroom is predicated within the Netherlands and was established in 2002 to prosecute the perpetrators of genocide, crimes towards humanity and battle crimes.
Trump additionally took measures towards ICC officers in 2020, authorising an asset freeze and blocking their members of the family from coming into the US after the courtroom started investigating alleged US actions in Afghanistan.
