Iran says U.S. sanctions on ICC aim to give Israel ‘fullest’ impunity for criminal acts

TEHRAN (Iran News)  Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei says the United States’ decision to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) is aimed at granting Israel full impunity for its criminal acts in pursuit of its “colonial erasure” of Palestine.

Baghaei made the comment on Friday night on X social media platform a day after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former war minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed during the Gaza war.

Trump’s order, which called the warrants “baseless”, freezes U.S. assets of people working on ICC investigations of American citizens or U.S. ally Israel, barring them from visiting the United States.

“Sanctioning ICC for investigating Israel’s heinous crimes marks a new low in the annals of US complicity and collusion with an occupying apartheid regime that has committed all sorts of atrocities in pursuit of its ‘colonial erasure’ of Palestine,” the Iranian spokesperson said.

“This is truly an egregious abuse of power aimed at affording Israeli regime the fullest impunity for its criminal acts that seriously threaten int’l peace and security,” Baghaei further said in his post, calling on the world to “beware and react accordingly” as the US is now targeting inter-governmental institutions through extraterritorial application of its domestic law.

Reuters reported that a group of 80 of countries on Friday expressed their “unwavering support” for the ICC, an intergovernmental organization seated in The Hague, Netherlands, which is the only permanent court for the prosecution of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.

The ICC itself condemned the sanctions as well, saying it will stand firmly in its pursuit of justice.