Iran denounces Rubio’s threat to ‘dismantle ICC brick by brick’
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei denounced US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s threat to dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC) “brick by brick” if Washington’s allies fail to rein in the tribunal, describing the move as a direct assault on the post-World War II institutional framework.
In a post on X on Saturday night, Baqaei recalled the lessons of the 1930s, noting that “international orders collapse not only through aggression, but when the use of force becomes normalized and the world remains silent.”
He challenged European governments directly: “Does standing by an alliance mean defending international law and the post-WWII normative & institutional framework – or standing with the U.S. as it dismantles them?”
Baqaei warned that sacrificing law and justice to appease an aggressive ally reduces any talk of human rights and a “rules-based international order” to “empty rhetoric.”
The remarks underscore Iran’s longstanding position that selective application of international law by Western powers undermines the very institutions established after 1945 to prevent aggression and protect civilian populations.
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday imposed new sanctions on the International Criminal Court, hours after one of its former judges won the Nobel Peace Prize, putting Washington on a diplomatic collision course with European allies.
The court denounced the move as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order,” and called on its 125 member states to take action to defend it.
“The Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it,” it said in a statement. “This is not just about defending a single institution, but about safeguarding the international order grounded upon the rule of law. History will judge this moment."
The Trump administration has long been hostile to the court, founded in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and has previously imposed sanctions on its prosecutors and judges.
Friday’s move goes much further, potentially punishing companies that provide services to the court itself, amounting to an unprecedented attack on an institution founded on an international treaty.