US expands sanctions targeting International Criminal Court | ICC News

United States expands attacks on International Criminal Court amid growing scrutiny over Israeli abuses in Gaza.

The United States has announced a new round of sanctions targeting members of the International Criminal Court, the latest instance of a pressure campaign against the court that previously issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

In a statement on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that two judges and two prosecutors were being added to a list of ICC members sanctioned by the administration of President Donald Trump.

“The Court is a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel,” Rubio said in a statement.

The ICC previously issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a statement on Wednesday, Netanyahu welcomed the new sanctions as a “decisive act against a smear campaign of lies against the State of Israel”.

The new sanctions target Kimberly Prost of Canada, Nicolas Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal.

Guillou is an ICC judge who oversaw a pre-trial panel that issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu, while Khan and Niang are the court’s two deputy prosecutors. The US Department of State cites the role all three played in issuing and upholding the Israeli arrest warrants.

The ICC is also probing possible war crimes by US forces in Afghanistan, although it said it will prioritise abuses by the Taliban and ISIL (ISIS) in that investigation after fierce US pushback.

Prost, according to the State Department announcement, is being sanctioned for “ruling to authorize the ICC’s investigation into US personnel in Afghanistan”.

Neither the US nor Israel is a party to the ICC, but the court maintains it can issue arrest warrants for citizens of such countries because the places in which the alleged crimes took place are parties to the court.

The US has been a longtime critic of the ICC and has bristled at the prospect that its own officials could someday face prosecution for alleged war crimes, but under previous administrations had stopped short of extreme steps, such as sanctions.

An initial round of sanctions targeting several ICC officials by the Trump administration earlier this year met widespread condemnation and criticism that the US was undermining international law to protect a close ally. The US accused those officials of taking part in “illegitimate and baseless actions” against Israel and the US.

Two of the individuals sanctioned on Wednesday are from France and Canada, two countries among several that recently announced that they would recognise a Palestinian state in response to Israel’s abuses in Gaza and continuous efforts to seize lands in the occupied West Bank through the expulsion of Palestinian residents.

France expressed “dismay” at the most recent round of US sanctions.