ALBAWABA- U.S. President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order Thursday imposing financial sanctions and visa restrictions on officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigating U.S. citizens and allies, including Israel.
The White House confirmed that the order aims to penalize those who assist ICC probes against the U.S. and its partners, as reported by NBC News.
The move follows the ICC’s controversial decision last November to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and several Hamas leaders, a move that triggered bipartisan outrage in Washington.
The Trump administration condemned the ICC’s actions, arguing that equating Israeli leaders with Hamas was a "shameful moral equivalency."
The court alleged that Netanyahu and Gallant engaged in war crimes by using "starvation as a method of warfare" in Gaza and targeting civilians, accusations that Israeli officials dismissed as baseless and antisemitic.
Trump’s signing of the executive order appears strategically timed with Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, where he met the president in the Oval Office on Tuesday.
Trump has long opposed the ICC, asserting in his first term that it has "no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority" over the U.S. or Israel, neither of which are signatories to the Rome Statute that established the court.
A White House fact sheet justifying the order argues that both the U.S. and Israel have "robust judiciary systems" and should not be subject to ICC jurisdiction.
Earlier this year, the House passed a bill to sanction the ICC, but it was blocked by Senate Democrats.
The ICC, based in The Hague, lacks its own enforcement mechanisms and relies on signatory states to execute arrest warrants.
While the Rome Statute obliges members to comply, international legal norms generally grant sitting heads of state immunity from prosecution in foreign courts.
