Tuesday10 December 2024
lifeukr.net

Biden expressed outrage over the ICC's arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

At the same time, officials in Italy announced that they would be obligated to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they travel there.
Байден выразил недовольство по поводу выдачи ордера на арест премьер-министра Израиля Нетаньяху Международным уголовным судом.

US President Joe Biden condemned the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as outrageous.

The White House leader emphasized that there is no equivalence between Israel and the Hamas movement and promised that the US will continue to support Israel, which is conducting military operations in the Gaza Strip, according to DW.

“The issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders by the ICC is outrageous. Let me state clearly once again: no matter what the ICC meant, there is no equality between Israel and Hamas – none whatsoever. We will always stand by Israel against threats to its security,” the document published by the White House press office states.

Previously, the US National Security Council released a statement expressing that the US “remains deeply concerned about the haste of the ICC prosecutor in issuing arrest warrants and the troubling procedural errors that led to this decision.”

Both Israel and the US do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. Since the court does not have its own police force, the responsibility for enforcing its decisions lies with the 124 states that are parties to the Rome Statute, as reminded by the AFP agency.

Meanwhile, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, stated that the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant under the ICC warrants is a mandatory decision to be executed.

“This is not a political decision. It is a judicial, legal decision of the ICC. And the court's decision must be respected and enforced,” Borrell said in comments to reporters.

Netanyahu himself commented on the issuance of the ICC warrants by saying: “The ICC's anti-Semitic decision can be compared to the modern Dreyfus affair – and it will end in the same way.”

In this context, the Israeli Prime Minister referred to the political scandal in France at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, connected to the judicial persecution of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of espionage for Germany and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Netanyahu stated that the court ignored Israel's right to defend itself against constant attacks from terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto noted that his country would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Galant if they arrived there.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for them an “important step.”

For her part, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, did not question the legality of the ICC's decision.

“ICC member states and the entire international community must stop at nothing until these individuals (Netanyahu, Galant, and Dreyfus) stand before independent and impartial judges of the ICC,” she stated.

Background. It has been reported that the ICC issued a warrant for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Galant. They are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.