US President Donald Trump will impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for targeting the United States and its allies, such as Israel, a White House official said.
According to Reuters, the sanctions will be financial and visa-related, and will target individuals and their family members who assist the ICC in investigations against US citizens or US allies.
Trump’s move comes after Democrats in the US Senate last week blocked a Republican initiative to sanction the ICC, which was in response to the issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Galant over Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu is currently in Washington, and the ICC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The court has already taken steps to protect its staff from potential US sanctions, such as paying salaries three months in advance, in preparation for financial restrictions that could paralyse the war crimes tribunal, sources told Reuters last month.
The court’s president, Tomoko Akane, warned in December that sanctions would “rapidly weaken the court’s operations in all cases and threaten its very existence.”
This is the second time the ICC has faced US sanctions over its activities. During the first Trump administration in 2020, the US imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her closest aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by US soldiers in Afghanistan.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has 125 member states and is a permanent institution that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression on the territory of member states or by their nationals. The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members of the ICC.
