Washington – US President Donald Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, hours after one of its former judges won the Nobel Peace Prize, putting Washington on a diplomatic collision course with European allies.
The Trump administration has long been hostile to the court and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges. Friday’s move would go far further, by potentially punishing companies that provide services to the court itself.
“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement reviewed by Reuters ahead of the official announcement.
“That is why, today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.”
Washington has long been angry over ICC arrest warrants issued for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and over a past investigation into actions of US soldiers in Afghanistan, which the ICC has since closed.
The court, founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, counts 125 countries as member states, including all EU countries and all members of the NATO alliance apart from the United States and Turkey.
It has received strong public backing in the past from member countries including major US allies, and is based in the Netherlands, an EU and NATO member.
The International Criminal Court says that US sanctions on the institution are an attack on international law and warns that “history will judge this moment.”
The sanctions are “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law,” says the court in a statement.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that Washington would ban transactions with what he called a “rogue court,” escalating a long-running campaign by US President Donald Trump’s administration against the court.
The court says such actions are aimed at intimidating ICC staff and disrupting its activities, vowing it will not be deterred.
The statement calls on the ICC’s 125 members to side with the institution, saying: “Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it.”
