The United States on Monday announced a campaign against the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing the tribunal of posing "an intolerable threat to US sovereignty" and threatening sanctions. "The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so-called international law," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a video statement. The State Department said in a statement the campaign will "systematically disable the ICC's ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty." Relations between the government of Donald Trump and the ICC have been extremely poor, with several court officials, including its chief prosecutor, already under US sanctions. The sanctions bar the officials from entering the United States and block property and financial transactions involving them in the world's largest economy. The measures have often focused on ICC investigations involving Israel, a US ally. The court issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others. However, in its statement, the State Department focused on what it called the ICC's "intolerable threat to US sovereignty," saying the court "claims the authority to prosecute and even imprison American servicemen and officials operating on behalf of America's national interest." "Americans never signed up for this, and all American presidents since the ICC's ratification have maintained that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Americans," the State Department said. The department listed a range of measures it was considering against the court, including having American diplomats call other nations to urge withdrawal from the body, as well as travel bans and sanctions against ICC officials. Established in 2002, the ICC prosecutes individuals accused of the gravest atrocities, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Neither Israel nor the United States is a party to the international treaty that established the ICC. Russia is also not a member, and its President Vladimir Putin has been the subject of an ICC arrest warrant since March 2023.
