Washington has condemned worldwide court docket’s software for warrants concentrating on each Israel and Hamas
Home Republicans are reportedly engaged on a invoice to sanction the Worldwide Prison Courtroom, after its prime prosecutor sought the arrest of each Israeli and Hamas leaders in reference to the Gaza battle.
ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Yoav Gallant – in addition to Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri – of “struggle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity” in Gaza and Israel.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, known as the ICC transfer “disgraceful” and “lawless.”
“If unchallenged by the Biden administration, the ICC might create and assume unprecedented energy to problem arrest warrants in opposition to American political leaders, American diplomats, and American army personnel,” Johnson stated on Monday, demanding the White Home “use each obtainable software to forestall such an abomination.”
Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the Home International Affairs Committee, advised Axios on Monday {that a} invoice to sanction the court docket is already being drafted, based mostly on the February 2023 invoice launched by Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican.
Cotton was among the many dozen senators who wrote to Khan earlier this month, reminding the ICC prosecutor that the US has a legislation on the books permitting “all means needed and acceptable” to defend any People – or allies – sought by the court docket. The 2002 legislation was nicknamed the “Hague Invasion Act.”
Whereas some congressional Democrats have urged a tough line on the ICC, two members of the Progressive Caucus – Pramila Jayapal and Mark Pocan – have argued it was less than Congress to dictate to an impartial court docket.
In accordance with Axios, Netanyahu has urged US President Joe Biden to “intervene” to forestall the ICC from approving Khan’s warrant request.
Biden has already denounced Khan’s movement to hunt the warrants as “outrageous” and protested that it created “equivalence” between Israel and Hamas. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the ICC “has no jurisdiction over this matter” and questioned “the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation.”
Though the US was one of many creators of the ICC, modeled after the Washington-backed struggle crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Congress by no means ratified the Rome Statute. The court docket has jurisdiction over the West Financial institution and Gaza, as a result of the Palestinian Authority accepted it in 2015.
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