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Donald Trump has international criminal court officials who examine the United States and its allies such as Israel, carried out sanctions and reintroduced a policy from his first term.
In an executive regulation signed on Thursday, the US President set financial sanctions and blocked visas for the ICC Employees and their families in a step that coincided with the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. The order also applies to civil servants who examine the US citizens.
The White House did not name the officials who were sanctioned.
In the order, the court is a threat to the “sovereignty” of the United States, which “undermines critical national security and the country’s foreign policy work” and allies such as Israel.
ICC employees who are “responsible” for the “violations” of the court could have their assets frozen, and they and their families could be blocked from entering the USA.
In November the ICC Arrival commands issued for Netanyahu and his then defense minister Yoav Gallant “for crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
The step was a dramatic escalation of the court proceedings about Israel Offensive in the Gaza -According to the Palestinian officials, around 47,000 people killed and marked the first time that the ICC issued an arrest warrant against a guide supported by Western.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for the then Hamas leader Mohammed Deif for crimes against humanity and war crimes on the group’s attack on Israel, who triggered the conflict in Gaza, on October 7, 2023.
The White House said: “By granting arrests for Israeli civil servants and Hamas at the same time the ICC created a shameful moral equivalence”.
Trump’s executive order said that the “recent measures against Israel and the United States are a dangerous precedent”, and that Washington “clearly contradicts Washington, and expects our allies against the ICC actions against the USA or Israel”.
Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the court or recognize their authority.
The ICC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The arrest warrants for Israeli officials committed the Member States of the ICC – to which most European and Latin American countries and some in Asia and Africa – to arrest Netanyahu and gallant when they cross their borders, even though the court has No enforcement mechanism.
Joe Bidens white house condemned the arrest warrants when they were issued. France, an ICC member and US allied, said in November that Netanyahu could have it Immunity through arrest Because Israel was not a signator of the Rome statute that was determined by the Court.
The independent court is located in the Netherlands and was founded in 2002 to pursue the perpetrators of the genocide, crimes against humanity and against war crimes.
Trump also took measures against ICC officials in 2020, confirmed that the assets were freezing and blocked their family members to get to the United States after the court examined the alleged US measures in Afghanistan.
