Rubio vows to ‘dismantle’ International Criminal Court
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed on Monday that the agreement would “fall apart.” International Criminal Court The Trump administration has significantly stepped up its campaign against the global institution and called on other countries to join the effort.
Rubio accused the ICC of waging war “against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with the so-called force of international law.”
The administration’s anger toward the ICC dates back to President Donald Trump’s first term, when he targeted the ICC to investigate alleged war crimes committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The second Trump administration imposed a series of sanctions against ICC officials for their attempts to investigate the United States and Israel.
However, the State Department’s “whole-of-government campaign” to disband the ICC is a significant escalation, especially given that it aims to pressure countries around the world to join and threatens potential cuts to U.S. aid for those who do not join.
“Nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s bogus mandate by relying on U.S. assistance are likely to be subject to increased scrutiny,” a State Department official said Monday. he said.
Rubio wrote in an op-ed: “We will dismantle the ICC, brick by brick if necessary, using every tool at our government’s disposal, working with every ally we can find common cause with.” separate piece In the Wall Street Journal on Monday. These tools include possible travel bans, visa cancellations and increased sanctions, the State Department official said.
“Countries that partner with U.S. law enforcement, host a U.S. military presence, or benefit from the broader U.S. security umbrella are urged to reject the ICC’s purported authority to prosecute American officials and soldiers,” the official said.
“We will watch with interest to see which nations join ranks with us against this threat to Americans willing to risk their lives to protect others.”
The official said senior officials, including the secretary, deputy secretary and U.S. ambassadors, “summoned the countries as part of a campaign to diplomatically isolate the International Criminal Court and ensure it does not target Americans.”
It was stated that the purpose of the calls was to persuade the countries that are parties to the ICC to withdraw from the ICC and “cut off all financial support to the court”.
CNN has reached out to the ICC for comment.
The administration is also calling on countries that are not parties to the court, such as the United States, to “take similar actions with us, using their diplomatic networks.”
In his opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Rubio accused the ICC of being “supported and led by a powerful network of left-wing nongovernmental organizations, complacent globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their hostility toward the United States.”
Rubio rejected claims by outside organizations that the administration’s deportation to El Salvador and deadly boat attacks on alleged narco-terrorists violated international law and rebuffed a call by an organization called Democracy for the Arab World (DAWN) for the ICC to investigate alleged US war crimes in Iran, but argued that such actions could risk investigation by the court.
Omar Shakir, DAWN’s executive director, told CNN that Rubio mischaracterized DAWN’s “call to investigate all possible war crimes committed in the war,” adding that this “begs the question: Does Secretary Rubio believe that U.S. personnel should be investigated for war crimes in Iran?”
“History will judge governments by whether they defend institutions designed to protect international law,” Shakir said. “It is not the ICC that Rubio is dismantling brick by brick, but the rules-based international order that emerged from the ashes of World War II.”
CNN’s Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.
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