Washington launches new campaign against ICC

Washington has launched a broad campaign against the  International Criminal Court, accusing it of threatening the sovereignty of the United States and threatening new sanctions against it.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that "the International Criminal Court and its friends are waging war on our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with legal texts, agreements and the power of so-called international law."

"The danger posed by this international tribunal continues to grow. Today they threaten every aspect of our political and legal system," he warned, warning that "if we remain idle, we will all be at the mercy of foreign judges thousands of kilometers away from us, and in constant danger of being prosecuted, and even imprisoned, for the so-called crime of defending our country."

The media sources explained that  the  pre-emptive offensive step comes  in the context of Washington's efforts to block any attempts to prosecute US citizens or military personnel on charges of committing war crimes outside US territory, considering the Hague's actions as a direct violation of its national sovereignty.

Diplomatic pressure to isolate The Hague

 Earlier, a  US State Department official said that President Donald Trump's administration is considering a wide range of proceedings against the International Criminal Court and is exerting pressure on several countries as part of a campaign aimed at "isolating them diplomatically and ensuring that they cannot target Americans".

The U.S. official, who asked not to be identified, said options include imposing travel restrictions, canceling visas, expanding sanctions on the court and affiliated organizations, as well as pressuring other countries to withdraw from the court.

The U.S. official said countries cooperating with U.S. law enforcement, hosting U.S. troops or taking advantage of Washington's security umbrella are required to reject what he called the court's "supposed authority" to prosecute U.S. officials and military personnel.

Washington has also issued veiled and explicit warnings to its strategic partners and allies who receive military and economic aid or host US bases against cooperating with the court's efforts, threatening to subject unresponsive countries to strict financial and security scrutiny and controls that may affect the aid granted to them.

The Trump administration says the court is a threat to U.S. sovereignty and should not have the authority to investigate and prosecute Americans, particularly members of the military.

Reuters had previously revealed that the Trump administration had supported sanctions on court officials, with the aim of preventing any future attempts to hold the president or members of his administration accountable for U.S. military operations abroad.

The Roots of the Strategic Dispute

The roots of the dispute between the two sides go back decades, with Washington consistently refusing to grant the court any jurisdiction over its citizens, insisting that it did not sign or accede to the Rome Statute that established the court in 2002. However, the current tension reached its peak in July against the backdrop of two hot files:

The ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked the ire of the US administration, which saw the move as an unacceptable political targeting of its most prominent strategic ally in the Middle East.

Afghanistan War File: Washington fears reactivating investigations previously opened by the court into suspected war crimes attributed to U.S. forces and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives there.

The sources following up on the file pointed out that in contrast to the US Justice Department's insistence on classifying the ICC as a foreign institution that is not subject to accountability and US law, human rights organizations and the court itself continue to warn that these financial pressures and threats represent a flagrant violation of the independence of the international judiciary and empty the mechanisms of international criminal accountability of their humanitarian essence.

The U.S. official told Reuters that Washington expects allies that rely on U.S. aid or benefit from security and military cooperation to reject what it calls the court's "alleged jurisdiction" to prosecute Americans.

The U.S. Department of Justice asserts that the ICC is a foreign institution that is not accountable to Washington, while the court and human rights organizations see U.S. pressure and sanctions as a threat to the independence of the international judiciary and undermining mechanisms for accountability for perpetrators of major crimes.