US President Donald Trump’s administration has prepared sanctions against the entire International Criminal Court and plans to announce them soon.
Axar.az informs, citing Reuters, the Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for the court and has worked to undermine it. US officials want the court to drop its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders as well as a past probe into American troops in Afghanistan.
Sanctions against the court have been prepared, two sources familiar with the matter said, even though the exact timing of an announcement remained unclear. The Wall Street Journal cited officials who said the decision could be finalized as soon as this week during the United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Targeting the entire organization directly, as well as entities that cooperate with it, could severely undermine the court’s work.
Any entity-wide sanctions imposed by the US Treasury would prohibit US citizens and companies from providing funds, goods, or services to the court without a license from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Banks often over-comply with such US sanctions because they depend on access to the American financial system.
Among the court’s operations that could be affected by sanctions against the entire organization are the purchasing of IT services and insurance, the hiring of investigators and conducting everyday financial transactions, such as paying dozens of American employees, the ICC’s registrar and president have warned.
The ICC was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It asserts jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself.
The United States has never been a member.