Taliban slams possible ICC arrest warrant, says court should go after Israel and US
Kabul accuses court of trying to ‘impose a particular interpretation of human rights’ after chief prosecutor says Taliban leaders suspected of gender-based crimes against humanity

KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Friday slammed an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court for its leaders, saying the move was “politically motivated” and that the court should instead pursue Israeli leadership over the war against Hamas in Gaza.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced on Thursday that he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women –- a crime against humanity.
Kabul assailed the Khan for the request.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Afghan Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan” — an apparent reference to the US and allied Afghan militias’ 2001-2021 war against the Taliban.
Kabul said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”

The Taliban, which was ousted in the US invasion, swept back to power in a rapid military takeover, toppling the American-backed government days after US forces withdrew from the country. After returning to power, the Taliban re-imposed its severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population, heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former detainee at the US Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the war in Gaza, which was sparked when thousands of Hamas led a thousands-strong invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The ICC had in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over the war, six months after Khan announced he was seeking warrants against the two, as well as three Hamas leaders whom Israel has since killed. Israel has strenuously rejected all accusations of war crimes.

‘Unconscionable persecution by Taliban’
Afghanistan’s government says it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.

ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.