Qatar denies assuring ICC prosecutor it would ‘look after’ him if he pursued Israeli arrest warrants

Qatar flatly denies a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming that Doha had assured ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan that the Gulf country would “look after” him if he pursued legal action against Israel’s leaders.

“Recent attempts to implicate Qatar in improper discussions with officials of the International Criminal Court – purportedly regarding potential arrest warrants for Israeli officials – are categorically false,” reads a statement from Qatar’s International Media Office

“These claims have been put forward by Israeli officials who have repeatedly spread false information about Qatar through selective leaks to serve their own interests. Their accusations have been consistently discredited and shown to be untrue,” the statement continues.

“It has become clear that these individuals are attempting to evade – at any cost – both domestic and international legal accountability for past and ongoing violations of international law. They wrongfully invoke Qatar’s name to divert attention from their own conduct and distort the facts in an effort to avoid legal scrutiny,” it adds.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu used the WSJ op-ed to blast the ICC as a “corrupt and morally bankrupt institution” that “should be closed.”