On his first day in office, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC). This means that the economic sanctions and travel restrictions against ICC staff, initially introduced by Trump in 2020, will once again take effect.
After the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the U.S. Senate stated that it views the court’s actions “not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but also to the sovereignty of the United States.”
The U.S. House of Representatives has already begun advancing a bill imposing sanctions on the ICC. However, the bill still needs to pass through the divided Senate. Meanwhile, judges fear that Trump will not wait for Congress to approve the legislation and will instead use an executive order to establish a legal basis for multiple rounds of sanctions.
