(Dan Tri) – US President Joe Biden said that the request by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a number of other senior Israeli officials was `insulting`.
US President Joe Biden (Photo: Reuters).
`The ICC chief prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against Israeli leaders is insulting. Let me be clear: Regardless of what this prosecutor may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.
The statement was made after ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on May 20 that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli officials and some Hamas leaders on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Specifically, he proposed that the ICC issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and two other senior Hamas figures.
Both the White House and the US State Department believe that the ICC does not have enough authority over Israel and should not consider this country on par with the Hamas armed force in any way.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US `fundamentally rejects` the ICC’s attempt to equate Israel with Hamas.
Mr. Blinken said that the ICC chief prosecutor’s move does not help, and could even affect efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as humanitarian aid efforts for people in the Gaza Strip.
In a related development, US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson also criticized the move of the ICC chief prosecutor.
`If not opposed by the Biden administration, the ICC could create and hold unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants for American political leaders, diplomats and military personnel,` Mr. Johnson said and
Michael McCaul, Republican congressman from Texas and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Axios that the House is drafting an ICC sanctions bill based on a February 2023 bill by Republican senator Tom
Earlier this month, Mr. Cotton was one of dozens of US senators who wrote a letter warning the ICC prosecutor that the US has laws authorizing `all necessary and appropriate measures` to protect any US citizen.
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized the proposal of the ICC chief prosecutor, and affirmed that such moves cannot prevent Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.
According to Axios news site, Mr. Netanyahu asked US President Biden to intervene to prevent the ICC from accepting prosecutor Khan’s request.
The Israel-Hamas conflict broke out last October when Hamas suddenly fired thousands of rockets toward Israel and captured more than 200 hostages from Israel and brought them to the Gaza Strip.