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Donald Trump is reportedly considering sanctions against the British lawyer leading the prosecution against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
US officials have condemned the ICC after it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former defence minister, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
British laywer and chief ICC prosecutor Karim Khan first requested that the court issue the warrants in earlier this year in May.
On Thursday, the three-judge panel made a unanimous decision to issue them.
In response to the warrants, Trump’s future national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said the court had “no credibility” and promised “a strong response” to the ICC when Trump takes office in January.
As reported by the Telegraph, Mr Khan is thought to be among the officials who could be sanctioned by the Trump administration.
Senior Republican politicians have also called for sanctions, including the chairman of the House foreign affairs committee, Michael McCaul, who called for the Senate to enact legislation to sanction officials immediately.
However, the UK appears to be taking a different approach to the US following the ICC’s decision to issue warrants.
When asked if Netanyahu would be arrested if he visited the UK, No 10 refused to explicitly comment on the individual case, saying it was a hypothetical situation, but said the UK would follow its legal obligations.
No 10 said the domestic process linked to ICC arrest warrants has never been used to date by the UK because no one wanted by the international court had visited the country.
Pressed on whether a secretary of state would comply with requirements under the International Criminal Court Act 2001, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said: “Yes, the government would fulfil its obligations under the Act and indeed its legal obligations.”
The Act states that the Secretary of State must, on receipt of a request for arrest from the ICC, “transmit the request and the documents accompanying it to an appropriate judicial officer”.
The spokesperson also said Sir Keir will continue to speak to Mr Netanyahu “in order to conduct the essential business of reaching a ceasefire in the Middle East”.
EU heavyweights Germany and France declined to say what they would do if the Israeli leader entered their territory, while Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban vowed to defy the warrant.
The ICC said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant were responsible for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.
The ICC pre-trial chamber also found “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”.
The ICC also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the October 7 2023 attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Israel is believed to have killed Deif in an airstrike, but Hamas has never confirmed his death.
