Trump revokes Biden order that removed his 2020 sanctions on the ICC

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Exterior of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Exterior of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Among the Biden executive orders reversed by US President Donald Trump on his first day in office is one that overturned sanctions Trump had issued against the International Criminal Court in his first term.

This ostensibly means that those economic sanctions and travel restrictions against ICC workers, which Trump instituted in 2020, will be back on the books.

Israel has been urging Trump to sanction the ICC over arrest warrants it issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Congress has been advancing its own sanctions against the court, but the effort still needs to get through a divided Senate.

The 2020 sanctions were implemented over the court’s efforts to investigate American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

Neither the US nor Israel are parties to the court and have therefore argued that it has no jurisdiction to probe either of them.

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