Trump Administration Prepares Sweeping Sanctions Against the International Criminal Court, WSJ Reports

US President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing US officials and documents the newspaper says it has reviewed. The move would mark a major escalation of Washington’s efforts to dismantle the Hague-based institution, following the arrest warrant the court issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the report, the sanctions would ban most transactions with the ICC after a grace period of six to seven months. Such a measure could paralyse the court’s operations, barring it from US-dollar transactions and largely cutting it off from the global financial system.

A final decision could come as early as this week, as the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York, the report says.

A State Department spokesperson did not comment in advance on potential sanctions decisions, but said Secretary of State Marco Rubio views the ICC as a threat to American sovereignty. The Treasury Department did not comment, and the International Criminal Court did not respond to a request for comment, the WSJ writes.

The United States has already sanctioned a number of ICC officials, including former chief prosecutor Karim Khan, court president Tomoko Akane, several judges, two deputy prosecutors and the chief prosecutor of the case against Netanyahu. The new sanctions, however, are expected to be far more punitive: they would apply to transactions with the ICC as an institution, not just designated individuals, while exempting communications-services transactions.

Source: Wall Street Journal / Reuters