Trump launches sanctions against the ICC, which he accuses of “illegal actions” against Israel and the United States

Donald Trump continues his war against international institutions. The American president signed a decree providing for sanctions against the International Criminal Court on Thursday. The text, broadcast by the White House, prohibits managers, employees and CPI agents from entering the United States, as well as closest members of their families and anyone considered to have assigned their work to work ‘ICC investigation. The decree also plans to freeze all the assets held in the United States by these same people.

The names of the individuals targeted were not made public immediately. Previous sanctions taken, taken in 2020 during the first term of Trump, had targeted Fatou Bensouda, then prosecutor of the court.

“The work of the ICC is essential”

In the process, the Netherlands, which house the International Criminal Court, expressed their “regrets” after the announcement of the decree. “The work of the Court is essential for the fight against impunity,” said Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs, Caspar Veldkamp, ​​on the social network X.

Donald Trump’s sanctions against the ICC threaten its independence and undermine “the entire international justice system,” said the president of the European Council, António Costa. An EU spokesperson said, that the 27 regretted the American decision and reserved “the possibility of taking measures (their) side”, without giving details on these measures. The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, claimed that the ICC could “continue to continue its fight against impunity”, assuring that Europe would always defend “respect for international law”.

The criminal court itself “condemned” American sanctions and undertook to “continue to do justice” in a statement published this Friday morning. A United Nations spokesman, for his part, asked Donald Trump to return to his decision.

But for his part, the Israeli Foreign Minister congratulated “strongly President Trump” on the social network X. “The ICC continues aggressively the elected leaders of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East”, a- He added, believing that it had no legitimacy insofar as “Israel and the United States have not gone to the status of Rome and are not members of the ICC”.

The American Republicans and many Democrats were outraged from the issue of an ICC arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, received by the American president on Tuesday, as well as the former minister of the Yoav Gallant Israeli Defense.

His judges considered that there were “reasonable reasons” to suspect the two men of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the war in Gaza, who followed the unprecedented attack on Hamas on Israeli soil . Benyamin Netanyahu had described the decision as anti -Semitic, while the former American president, Democrat Joe Biden, had described as “scandalous” the arrest mandates against the Israelis.

Neither the United States nor Israel is members of the ICC, a permanent jurisdiction responsible for continuing and judging individuals accused of genocide, crime against humanity and war crime. Founded in 2002, the Court established in The Hague now has 124 Member States and has pronounced since its creation only a handful of convictions.

Donald Trump’s decision was announced shortly after he caused an international shock by declaring that the United States would take possession of the Gaza Strip and ensure their economic and real estate development, while the Palestinians who reside there would be moved , under conditions which he did not specify, towards one or more neighboring countries.