In Prague, FM Sa’ar says he expects US to punish ICC over arrest warrants
Netanyahu rival-turned-ally urges Czechs to stand with Israel against The Hague, calls on the international community to end ‘Iranian occupation’ in Lebanon
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
In the Czech Republic on his first official visit abroad as foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar said Thursday he believes the United States will punish the International Criminal Court for recently issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Israel said the day before that it would appeal the ICC decision to move against Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, Sa’ar said other countries were also dismayed by the decision, including the United States.
“I tend to believe that in Washington, legislation is going to take place very shortly against the ICC and whoever cooperates with it,” he said.
The incoming Donald Trump administration is said to be weighing sanctioning the ICC over its actions against Netanyahu and Gallant.
Netanyahu met with US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in his office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, where the senator updated the prime minister on “a series of steps that he is advancing in the US Congress against the ICC and against countries that have cooperated with it.”
I met today with Czech Prime Minister @P_Fiala. We discussed the situation in Lebanon and the need to enforce the prevention of Hezbollah’s return to Israel’s border. I emphasized that this is an opportunity for Lebanon to emancipate itself from Iranian occupation. I added that… pic.twitter.com/LyAnqTGKXg
— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) November 28, 2024
The Czech Foreign Ministry has said it will heed the court’s ruling, but Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the ICC decision “unfortunate” and said it “undermines authority in other cases by equating the elected representatives of a democratic state with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organization” (the ICC also issued a warrant for Hamas military leader Muhammad Deif, though Israel says he was killed months ago).
Sa’ar added that Israel will finish the 14-month-old war in Gaza, sparked by the October 7, 2023, onslaught, when it “achieves its objectives” of returning hostages held by Hamas and ensuring the Islamist terror group no longer controls the Palestinian enclave.
Sa’ar promised that Israel does not intend to control civilian life in Gaza, adding that peace is “inevitable” but couldn’t be based on “illusions.”
Calling Prague a “moral voice in Europe,” Sa’ar invited Lipavsky to visit Israel.
Lipavsky said on X that Sa’ar’s visit “comes at [a] challenging time as Israel defends itself against terrorism and strives to rescue hostages from Gaza. Czechia awaits the fulfillment of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.”
Addressing the recent ceasefire in Lebanon, Sa’ar said that “Hezbollah understood the hard way that it is not worthwhile to attack Israel.”
He said that the document laying out the ceasefire terms was not as important as “the reality.”
“We will not allow Hezbollah to breach the arrangement,” he said. “We will respond immediately to every violation. We will not let Hezbollah go south of the Litani River. We will not allow Hezbollah to rearm again.”
In a meeting with Fiala, Sa’ar said the ceasefire in Lebanon was “an opportunity for Lebanon to emancipate itself from Iranian occupation” and called on the international community to take part in this effort.
The ceasefire came into effect early Wednesday, in an effort to end over a year of cross-border violence initiated by Hezbollah last October. The ceasefire sets out a 60-day period for Israeli troops to pull out and for new security arrangements to be made. Hezbollah is banned from operating south of the Litani River, several kilometers from the border.
Sa’ar returned to the ICC warrants with Fiala, calling on Prague to “stand firmly with Israel.” He also sought to make a comparison between the ICC arrest warrant and the Munich Agreement of 1938, which was meant to appease Nazi Germany by giving it Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland region.
Meeting with President of the Czech Senate Miloš Vyštarčil and Jan Bartosek, who heads the Czech-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Association, Sa’ar said: “Just as an agreement was signed to dissolve Czechoslovakia in 1938 when it was not even represented in the room, they want to judge Israel in a court of which it is not even a member.
“I know that the Czech people are a moral and ethical people. I ask you to raise your voice against this injustice,” he added.
According to the Israeli readout, Czech senators who spoke to Sa’ar called the ICC decision “absurd.”
