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SvennoJ on 20 May 2024
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Here come the war mongers

US lawmakers issue threats against ICC

Anthony D’Esposito, a Republican congressman from New York, says the ICC is “playing with fire, putting any international legitimacy at risk”. “There will be serious consequences if they proceed,” he said.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, also a Republican, called the move an “outrageous decision” that is “a slap in the face to the independent judiciary in Israel, which is renowned for their independence”.Graham said he will work with Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress to “levy damning sanctions against the ICC”.

A Republican congressman from Florida, Brian Mast, said in a post on X: “America doesn’t recognise the International Criminal Court, but the court sure as hell will recognize what happens when you target our allies.”

‘Outrageous’: Biden slams ICC arrest warrant application against Israeli leaders

In a brief statement released by the White House, US President Joe Biden has for the first time responded to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s application for arrest warrants for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” he said. “And let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

The Biden administration has repeatedly maintained its “ironclad” support for Israel amid the war, even as it has increasingly voiced concerns over the high civilian death toll in Gaza and barriers to access to humanitarian aid.

Blinken says ‘shameful’ ICC case on Israel puts truce talks at risk

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has denounced as “shameful” a bid by the ICC prosecutor to arrest Israeli leaders, rejecting the court’s authority and saying the move put ceasefire efforts at risk.

“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said in a statement over the bids to arrest Israeli leaders including PM Netanyahu as well as Hamas chiefs.

Top Israeli diplomat asks AIPAC to push for ‘dramatic steps’ against ICC

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he has met with representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), an influential pro-Israel lobbying group.

“I asked them to work with the [US] administration and Congress to take dramatic steps against the decision by the Prosecutor of the ICC to demand arrest warrants for PM Netanyahu and the Defense Minister,” Katz said on X.

He did not specify the steps. Several staunchly pro-Israel US lawmakers renewed calls to impose sanctions, including travel bans, on ICC officials, earlier in the day. Republicans in the US House of Representatives and Senate had previously introduced legislation seeking to impose penalties on ICC Prosecutor Khan.

Sanders says ICC ‘right’ as top Dem condemns prosecutor

Divisions within the Democratic party and its progressive flank over ICC prosecutor Khan’s request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant have been on full display.

Speaking on the Senate floor today, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, called Khan’s move “profoundly unfair” and “reprehensible”.

He accused the ICC of harbouring “deep biases” against Israel.

Meanwhile, progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Khan was “right to take these actions”. “Without these standards of decency and morality, this planet may rapidly descend into anarchy, never-ending wars, and barbarism,” he said in a statement.



UK calls ICC arrest warrant request ‘unhelpful’

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denounced requests from the ICC prosecutor for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders.

“This action is not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in,” the spokesperson said.

Germany says it respects ICC but Israel has ‘right to defend itself’

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office says Berlin respects the ICC’s independence and procedures like all other international courts.

But, it said, the simultaneous application for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders and Israeli officials has created a false impression of an equivalency.

It added that Israel has a right to defend itself so long as international humanitarian law and its obligations apply.

Italy latest western country to condemn ICC prosecutor

Speaking during a TV interview, Antonio Tajani condemned ICC prosecutor Khan for seeking arrest warrants for both Israeli leaders and leaders of Hamas.

“It seems to me truly singular, I would say unacceptable, to equate a government legitimately elected by the people in a democracy with a terrorist organisation that is the cause of everything that is happening in the Middle East,” Tajani said.

The statement echoes similar condemnations made by the US, UK and Germany earlier today.