On his first day of office, U.S. President Donald Trump revoked an executive order that had ended sanctions directed against the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was signed by former president Joe Biden.
As the Times of Israel reported, the executive order from Biden “had itself overturned an executive order Trump had issued against the ICC in 2020 during his first term,” which had been designed by the Trump administration to “block US property and assets of any official at the ICC who investigates US troops, as the court examined alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan.”
While it remains to be seen whether additional sanctions will be imposed by President Trump, ICC officials have expressed fears that Trump could potentially “destroy” the organization if he chooses to impose broader sanctions.
“The concern is the sanctions will be used to shut the court down, to destroy it rather than just tie its hands,” one ICC official said according to a report from the Guardian.
A bill imposing sanctions on the ICC, titled the “Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act,” was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month, and is expected to be voted on by the Senate in the coming days.
The bill was passed in reaction to the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, despite Israel not being a member of the ICC.
The United States and Israel, neither of which are members of the ICC, strongly condemned the decision.
Though the ICC has no enforcement mechanism, the arrest warrants could be enforced by the governments of the 124 member nations of the ICC if Netanyahu enters their territories.
