US President Joe Biden denounced an “outrageous” application by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Monday for an arrest warrant for Israeli leaders, as Washington warned the move put truce talks at risk.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sought warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas leaders, on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” Biden said in a statement.
“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Biden did not comment on the warrant requests for Yahya Sinwar, the head of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza, and Ismail Haniyeh, the movement’s political chief.
Neither the United States nor Israel is a member of the ICC and both have rejected its jurisdiction.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken separately denounced the “shameful” application and warned it “could jeopardize” ongoing efforts for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Hamas following the militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel.
“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said in a statement.
The White House has previously refused to comment on whether the Biden administration could take retaliatory action including sanctions against the ICC if it targeted Israel.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on May 3 that she would not say “what could be next and if we would weigh in if they were to move forward” with charges.
In 2020 the administration of then-president Donald Trump targeted the ICC with sanctions over its investigation into Afghanistan. The Biden administration lifted them.
