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Iran says US bans on ICC aim to grant Israel impunity for criminal acts
Baqaei made the comments after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing bans on the ICC which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former military affairs minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes during the war on Gaza.
“Sanctioning ICC for investigating Israel’s heinous crimes marks a new low in the annals of US complicity and collusion with an occupying apartheid regime that has committed all sorts of atrocities in pursuit of its ‘colonial erasure’ of Palestine,” the Iranian spokesperson said in a message posted on his X account.
Trump’s order, which called the warrants “baseless”, freezes US assets of people working on ICC investigations of American citizens or US ally Israel, barring them from visiting the United States.
“This is truly an egregious abuse of power aimed at affording Israeli regime the fullest impunity for its criminal acts that seriously threaten int’l peace and security,” Baqaei further said, calling on the world to “beware and react accordingly” as the US is now targeting inter-governmental institutions through extraterritorial application of its domestic law.
Reuters reported that a group of 80 of countries on Friday expressed their “unwavering support” for the ICC, an intergovernmental organization seated in The Hague, Netherlands, which is the only permanent court for the prosecution of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
The ICC itself condemned the sanctions as well, saying it will stand firmly in its pursuit of justice.