Joe Biden describes ICC’s intention to detain Israeli leaders as “scandalous”

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, considered the arrest warrant requested by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Defense “scandalous.”and asserted that “Israel and Hamas are not comparable.”

>>> ICC orders arrest of Israeli prime minister and Hamas leader

“Let me be clear: no matter what the prosecutor insinuates, Israel and Hamas are in no way comparable“Biden said in a statement.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sought injunctions 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. .

“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security“said Biden, who did not comment on the warrant requests for Yahya Sinwar, the head of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza, or for Ismail Haniyeh, the political head.

Neither the United States nor Israel are members of the ICC and both have rejected its jurisdiction.

>>> What is the ICC, which called for the arrest of the Israeli prime minister and the Hamas leader?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken separately denounced the “shameful” app and warned that it “could jeopardize” ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas following the militant group’s attack on Israel on October 7.

“We reject the equivalence that Israel’s prosecutor makes with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said in a statement.

The White House has previously declined to comment on whether the Biden administration could retaliate, including sanctions against the ICC, if it attacked Israel.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on May 3 that she would not say “what might happen next and whether we would intervene if they went ahead” with the filing of charges.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump’s administration targeted the ICC with sanctions for its investigation into Afghanistan. The Biden administration lifted them.