WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four more International Criminal Court judges or prosecutors, including from allies France and Canada, in a new effort to hobble the tribunal particularly over actions against Israel.
“The Court is a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, using a term popular with President Donald Trump’s supporters.
Rubio said that the four people targeted from the tribunal based in The Hague had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the United States or Israel “without the consent of either nation.”
The four include Judge Nicolas Guillou of France, who is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The case was brought forward by the State of Palestine, which is not recognized by Washington but, unlike Israel or the United States, has acceded to the statute that set up the tribunal in The Hague.
Guillou, a veteran jurist, had worked for several years in the United States assisting the Justice Department with judicial cooperation during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Also targeted in the latest US sanctions was a Canadian judge, Kimberly Prost, who was involved in a case that authorized an investigation into alleged crimes committed during the war in Afghanistan, including by US forces.
Under the sanctions, the United States will bar entry of the ICC judges to the United States and block any property they have in the world’s largest economy — measures more often taken against US adversaries than individuals from close allies.
Rubio also slapped sanctions on two deputy prosecutors — Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal.
The State Department said the two were punished by the United States for supporting “illegitimate ICC actions against Israel,” including by supporting the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The Trump administration has roundly rejected the authority of the court, which is backed by almost all European democracies and was set up as a court of last resort when national systems do not allow for justice.
Trump on Friday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska even though Putin faces an ICC arrest warrant, a factor that has stopped him from traveling more widely since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Rubio slapped sanctions on four other ICC judges in June.
US targets more ICC judges including over Israel
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US targets more ICC judges including over Israel
- Rubio said the four people targeted from the tribunal had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the US or Israel “without the consent of either nation”
UN envoy hopeful on Cyprus, says multi-party summit premature
- Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman
- “While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning”
NICOSIA: The key UN envoy seeking to break a deadlock in Cyprus’s long-running division said she was cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough but that it would be premature to convene a multi-nation summit on the conflict.
In an interview with Cyprus’s Phileleftheros daily, envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on December 11. She said their discussion, which agreed to focus also on confidence-building, was “deep, sincere and very straightforward.”
“While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning. More will need to be done in order to strengthen the nascent momentum and establish a real climate of trust that would allow the Secretary-General to convene a 5+1 informal meeting,” said Holguin, a former Colombian foreign minister.
A 5+1 meeting would be an informal summit of the two Cypriot communities with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of Britain, Turkiye and Greece to define how to move forward and break a seven-year stalemate in peace talks. The three NATO nations are guarantor powers of Cyprus under a treaty which granted the island independence from Britain in 1960.
A power-sharing administration of Cypriot Greeks and Turks crumbled in 1963. Turkiye invaded the north of the island in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The island has been split on ethnic lines ever since.
Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in the north, while Greek Cypriots in the south run an internationally recognized administration representing the whole island in the European Union.
