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ICC 'condemns' US sanctions and vows to 'continue providing justice'
The international criminal court on Friday hit back after US president Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the institution, vowing it would continue to provide “justice and hope” around the world.
“The ICC condemns the issuance by the US of an executive order seeking to impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independent and impartial judicial work,” the court said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” added the court, based in The Hague.
Attacking the ICC for what he said were “illegitimate and baseless” investigations targeting the US and its ally Israel, Trump hit the court with sanctions on Thursday. He ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations. The names of the individuals were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump had targeted the court’s prosecutor.
“We call on our 125 states parties, civil society and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights,” the ICC statement concluded.
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Anna Betts
Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly gave Donald Trump a “golden pager” during their meeting in Washington DC this week, in an apparent reference to Israel’s deadly attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon last year.
In photos circulating online, the golden pager can be seen mounted on a piece of wood, accompanied by a golden plaque that reads in black lettering: “To President Donald J. Trump, Our greatest friend and greatest ally. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Israeli media reported that the Israeli prime minister, who is wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes, also gave the US president a regular pager.
The gift was reportedly a nod to Israel’s deadly operation last September against Hezbollah, during which thousands of handheld pager beeper devices and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.
The explosions killed at least 37 people, including children as young as nine years old, and left thousands wounded.
An Israeli official told the Associated Press that upon receiving the golden pager from Netanyahu, Trump, responded: “That was a major operation.”
Here are some of the latest images coming in via the newswires:
Harry Davies
Donald Trump has signed an executive order that authorises aggressive economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), accusing the body of “illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and Israel.
The order grants the US president broad powers to impose asset freezes and travel bans against ICC staff and their family members if the US determines that they are involved in efforts to investigate or prosecute citizens of the US and certain allies.
The hostile action against the ICC comes in response to the court’s decision in November to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In the order, Trump said the ICC had “abused its power” by issuing the warrants which he claimed had “set a dangerous precedent” that endangered US citizens and its military personnel.
“This malign conduct in turn threatens to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the critical national security and foreign policy work of the United States government and our allies, including Israel,” he added.
Neither the US nor Israel are member states of the ICC, a permanent court of last resort for the prosecution of individuals accused of atrocities. In his order, Trump argued the court must “respect the decision” of countries “not to subject their personnel to the ICC’s jurisdiction”.
It was unclear if the Trump administration would announce the names of specific individuals targeted by the sanctions. ICC officials have prepared for sanctions to impact senior figures at the court including its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
Khamenei warns of reciprocal actions if US moves against Iran
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Friday that his country would reciprocate if the United States threatened or carried out actions against Iran.
“If they threaten us, we will threaten them. If they carry out this threat, we will carry out our threat. If they attack the security of our nation, we will attack their security without hesitation,” said Khamenei during a meeting with army commanders.
ICC 'condemns' US sanctions and vows to 'continue providing justice'
The international criminal court on Friday hit back after US president Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the institution, vowing it would continue to provide “justice and hope” around the world.
“The ICC condemns the issuance by the US of an executive order seeking to impose sanctions on its officials and harm its independent and impartial judicial work,” the court said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The court stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world,” added the court, based in The Hague.
Attacking the ICC for what he said were “illegitimate and baseless” investigations targeting the US and its ally Israel, Trump hit the court with sanctions on Thursday. He ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court’s investigations. The names of the individuals were not immediately released, but previous US sanctions under Trump had targeted the court’s prosecutor.
“We call on our 125 states parties, civil society and all nations of the world to stand united for justice and fundamental human rights,” the ICC statement concluded.
Human Rights Watch warned on Friday that US aid suspensions could worsen “life-threatening conditions” in camps holding relatives of suspected Islamic State jihadists in north-east Syria, urging Washington to maintain support, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Kurdish-run camps and prisons in the region still hold about 56,000 people with alleged or perceived links to the Islamic State group.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday experience has proven that talks with the United States are “not smart, wise or honourable.”
US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would like to have a verified nuclear peace agreement with Tehran. During his previous term in office in 2018, Trump pulled the US out of Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that Iran is ready to give the US a chance to resolve disputes.
Khamenei said on Friday that negotiations with the US would not solve the country’s problems.
“We must understand this correctly; they should not pretend that if we sit down at the negotiating table with that government (the US administration), problems will be solved,” Khamenei said during a meeting with army commanders, adding that “no problem will be solved by negotiating with America”.
In response to US president Donald Trump’s executive order calling for sanctions against international criminal court staff, Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), issued this statement:
[Trump’s] order for sanctions against unnamed international criminal court staff and their families because they did their job in investigating US torture and advancing justice for Palestinians in the face of Israel’s 15-month total assault on Gaza is a direct attack on the rule of law.
Trump continues to make clear that he would rather protect war criminals like Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant than people subjected to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
The broad scope of the executive order is intended to embolden perpetrators across the world and to inhibit the pursuit of international justice against the most powerful.”
Lawyers from the CCR currently represent Palestinians in proceedings before the ICC.
Israel praises Trump for imposing sanctions on ICC
Israel on Friday praised US president Donald Trump for imposing sanctions on the international criminal court, calling the court’s actions against Israel “immoral” and illegitimate, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“I strongly commend @POTUS President Trump’s executive order imposing sanctions on the so-called ‘international criminal court’,” foreign minister Gideon Saar said on X, adding the ICC’s actions were “immoral and have no legal basis”.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio will pay his first visit to the Middle East this month, a senior state department official said on Thursday, after president Donald Trump’s remarks on relocating Gaza’s population.
Rubio will attend the Munich Security Conference and then visit Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia from 13-18 February, the official said.
Reuters reports that the US official said Rubio would discuss Gaza and the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel during the trip, and would pursue Trump’s approach of trying to disrupt the status quo in the region.
“The status quo can’t continue. It’s like wash, rinse and repeat. It becomes familiar and you begin to think this is just what life is and what we have to expect. President Trump and Marco Rubio believe that that’s not the case, that things can change,” the official said, reports Reuters.
Israel's defence minister instructs army to make plan for Palestinians to 'voluntarily' leave Gaza
Israel’s defence minister ordered the army on Thursday to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza, as US President Donald Trump ruled out sending American troops to the territory, AFP reports.
Trump had earlier proposed moving Palestinians out of Gaza, sparking uproar from leaders in the Middle East and beyond.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to formulate a plan for Palestinians to leave Gaza, which has been ravaged by more than a year of war.
“I have instructed the IDF (military) to prepare a plan to enable voluntary departure for Gaza residents,” Katz said, adding they could go “to any country willing to accept them”.
Trump has insisted that “everybody loves” his plan, saying it would involve the United States taking over Gaza, but there has been widespread outcry with the United Nations warning that any forced displacement of Palestinians would be “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
Iran condemns 'unjustified' US sanctions
The sanctions against the ICC were not the only ones issued by the Trump administration this week. Iran on Friday condemned as “illegal” and “unjustified” new financial sanctions by the United States that target Iranian entities accused of selling crude oil to China, Agence France-Presse reports.
“The decision of the new US government to exert pressure on the Iranian nation by preventing Iran’s legal trade with its economic partners is an illegitimate, illegal and violative measure,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a statement, adding that the move is “categorically unjustified and contrary to international rules”.
Opening summary
Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of developments in the Middle East. If you are just tuning in, there is plenty to catch up on.
Rights activists have strongly criticised Donald Trump’s sanctioning of the international criminal court (ICC). The US president’s announcement, in which he claimed the court had targeted the US and its close ally, Israel, came two days after he declared the US would take over Gaza and envisioned the area as the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Responding to Trump’s move, the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said the order “sends the message that Israel is above the law and the universal principles of international justice”.
“Today’s executive order is vindictive. It is aggressive. It is a brutal step that seeks to undermine and destroy what the international community has painstakingly constructed over decades, if not centuries: global rules that are applicable to everyone and aim to deliver justice for all,” she added.
Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the subject of an ICC arrest warrant applauded Trump’s move, extending his thanks to the US president in a post on X. “Thank you, President Trump, for your bold ICC Executive Order,” he said, “It will defend America and Israel from the anti-American and antisemetic corrupt court that has no jurisdiction or basis to engage in lawfare against us.”
Meanwhile Israel on Thursday struck two sites in Lebanon despite a ceasefire deal. It said the sites contained a stockpile of Hezbollah weapons without providing any evidence.
A fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has been in place since 27 November, after more than a year of hostilities. Despite the deal, Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Lebanon, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of violating the truce.
Here is a quick summary of the latest:
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Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC, which accuses the ICC of having “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions” targeting the US and its “close ally” Israel. It said the court “abused its power” by issuing “baseless” arrest warrants targeting Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and its former defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
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Trump has doubled down on his proposal to “take ownership” of Gaza despite widespread opposition. In a Truth Social post, Trump said the Palestinian territory would be “turned over” to the US by Israel after it concludes its military offensive against Hamas. Netanyahu, who is in Washington, said it is “worth listening carefully” to Trump’s proposal.
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Globally, the proposal to relocate 2.3 million Palestinians to other countries has provoked outrage. Trump’s proposal would “squash” the ceasefire and “incite a return of fighting”, Egypt’s foreign ministry said. Russia called Trump’s proposal “counterproductive” and accused him of fuelling “tension in the region”. China’s foreign ministry said Beijing opposed the forced transfer of people in Gaza. Pakistan described Trump’s plan as “deeply troubling and unjust”, while Iran said it “categorically rejected and condemned” Trump’s proposal.
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US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Palestinians in Gaza are “going to have to live somewhere else in the interim”, describing Gaza as “not habitable” in comments that appeared to walk back on Trump’s proposal about transferring Palestinians permanently to neighbouring countries. Rubio will travel to Europe and the Middle East next week, a senior State Department official said Thursday.
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Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, ordered the military to prepare plans to allow Palestinians “who wish to leave” Gaza to exit. Asked who should take the residents of Gaza, Katz said it should be countries who have opposed Israel’s military operations since the 7 October attacks, he said. He also claimed that Spain, Ireland, and Norway, who all last year recognised a Palestinian state, are “legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories”.
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In violation of a ceasefire deal, Israel said late on Thursday it had struck two sites in Lebanon that allegedly contained weapons of the Hezbollah group. Israeli forces “conducted a precise strike in Lebanese territory on two military sites that contained Hezbollah weapons, which were in violation of the ceasefire agreement,” the army said in a post on X.
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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) warned the agency faces an “existential threat” after Israel formally banned it from operating on its territory. Philippe Lazzarini also described Trump’s Gaza proposal as “totally unrealistic”, adding: “We are talking about forced displacement. Forced displacement is a crime, an international crime. It’s ethnic cleansing.”
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Human Rights Watch warned that Trump’s proposal could move the US “from being complicit in war crimes to direct perpetration of atrocities”. Forced or coerced displacement is a crime against humanity, illegal under the Geneva conventions, to which Israel and the US are signatories. “Governments should together make clear their strong opposition to Trump’s call for forced displacement in Gaza and take action to prevent further atrocities against the Palestinian people,” said HRW Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih.
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At least 47,583 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry on Thursday. The ministry’s latest daily update also said that a total of 111,633 have now been injured.
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Israel informed the United Nations human rights council (UNHRC) that it is formally withdrawing from the body. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said the decision was reached “in light of the ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias against Israel in the human rights council.
