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U.S. Imposes Sanctions on the ICC
President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on the Hague-based International Criminal Court, or ICC, for engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting Americans and our close ally Israel.”
In the executive order authorizing the action, President Trump called the sanctions “tangible and significant consequences on those responsible for the ICC’s transgressions, some of which may include the blocking of property and assets, as well as the suspension of entry into the United States of ICC officials, employees, and agents, as well as their immediate family members, as their entry … would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” The first person to be sanctioned by the United States under this executive order is ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan.
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrests warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity in their conduct of the Israel/Gaza war, which was triggered by Hamas’ terror attack on Israel in October 2023.
In the executive order, President Trump called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant “baseless” and an abuse of power by the ICC. He noted that neither Israel nor the United States has ever recognized the ICC’s jurisdiction. Moreover, said President Trump, “[B]oth nations are thriving democracies with militaries that strictly adhere to the laws of war.”
The ICC’s recent actions, President Trump wrote, “set a dangerous precedent” that endangers United States personnel, including active service members of the Armed Forces, “by exposing them to harassment, abuse, and possible arrest.
This malign conduct, in turn,” he said, “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.”
President Trump noted that U.S. law protects U.S. personnel and personnel from certain allies against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not a party.
“The United States remains committed to accountability and to the peaceful cultivation of international order,” said President Trump. “But the ICC and parties to the Rome Statute [that established the ICC] must respect the decisions of the United States and other countries not to subject their personnel to the ICC jurisdiction, consistent with their respective sovereign prerogatives.”