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Trump imposes sanctions on ICC, accusing it of targeting US and Israel Trump imposes sanctions on ICC, accusing it of targeting US and Israel
(about 3 hours later)
Trump has been critical of ICC since it issued arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza US president has been critical of court since it issued arrest warrant for Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza
Donald Trump has signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against individuals and their families who assist the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel”. Donald Trump has signed an executive order that authorises aggressive economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.
Trump has been a vocal critic of the ICC since it issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, along with several Hamas leaders simultaneously. The order grants the US president broad powers to impose asset freezes and travel bans against ICC staff and their family members if the US determines that they are involved in efforts to investigate or prosecute citizens of the US and certain allies.
The signing of the order coincides with Netanyahu’s visit to the US Capitol, which included an Oval Office meeting earlier this week. The hostile action against the ICC comes in response to the court’s decision in November to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
It was unclear how quickly the Trump administration would announce names of people sanctioned. In the order, Trump said the ICC had “abused its power” by issuing the warrants which he claimed had “set a dangerous precedent” that endangered US citizens and its military personnel.
Since facing backlash in Washington for the warrants, the ICC had been bracing itself for retaliatory moves by Trump. “This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel,” he added.
The threat of US sanctions has loomed over the court for months, with multiple ICC sources saying that the court’s leadership feared Trump would not wait for legislation to pass but rather would issue a swift executive order creating the legal basis for multiple rounds of sanctions. Neither the US nor Israel are member states of the ICC, a permanent court of last resort for the prosecution of individuals accused of atrocities. In his order, Trump argued the court must “respect the decision” of countries “not to subject their personnel to the ICC’s jurisdiction”.
Officials described it as a “worst case scenario” that the US would impose sanctions against the institution in addition to measures targeting individuals. Trump said the US “will impose tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions” including by blocking property and assets and suspending entry into the US of ICC officials and their family members.
Trump has previously argued that the ICC had “no jurisdiction, no legitimacy and no authority” in the US during his first term as president. It was unclear if the Trump administration would announce the names of specific individuals targeted by the sanctions. ICC officials have prepared for sanctions to impact senior figures at the court including its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
On Thursday, ICC officials were working late into the night awaiting news from Washington about the scope of the sanctions and which of its officials would be individually targeted.
The signing of the order comes days after Trump met with the Israeli prime minister in the Oval Office. Last week, a bill that would have imposed sweeping sanctions against the ICC was stalled in the Senate after Democrats refused to support the legislation.
Responding to Trump’s move, the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said the order “sends the message that Israel is above the law and the universal principles of international justice”.
“Today’s executive order is vindictive. It is aggressive. It is a brutal step that seeks to undermine and destroy what the international community has painstakingly constructed over decades, if not centuries: global rules that are applicable to everyone and aim to deliver justice for all,” she added.
After ICC judges issued the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant in November, the court had been bracing itself for retaliatory moves by the Trump administration.
Officials at the court, which is headquartered in the Hague in the Netherlands, fear the sanctions could pose an existential threat to the judicial body, which was established in 2002 and has 125 member states which have ratified its founding statute.
Several ICC sources told the Guardian last month that sanctions against senior court figures would be difficult but manageable, but institution-wide sanctions would pose an existential threat to the judicial body as they would block its access to services it depends on to function.
The order signed by Trump on Thursday suggests the US will target specific individuals listed in an annex to document, however it was not immediately clear which individuals were included.
In 2020, under a separate but similar executive order, Trump imposed travel bans and asset freezes against the ICC’s former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who is Gambian, and one of her top officials.
The measures were launched in response to decisions made by Bensouda in war crimes investigations in Afghanistan and the occupied Palestinian territories. At the time, Bensouda was conducting a preliminary inquiry into allegations of crimes committed by Israel’s armed forces and Hamas.
In 2021, Bensouda upgraded the case to a formal criminal investigation. The current prosecutor, Karim Khan, inherited the inquiry and later accelerated it after the Hamas-led 7 October attacks and Israel’s ensuing bombardment of Gaza.