Published 30 April 2024 at 08.57
Foreign. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday asked Joe Biden to help prevent the International Criminal Court ICC from issuing arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials. Two Israeli officials told Axios.
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Israel has grown increasingly concerned over the past two weeks that the ICC is preparing to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.
Such an arrest warrant would mean that all countries that have ratified the Rome Statute are bound to arrest the Israeli prime minister.
According to the sources, Netanyahu expressed expressed his concern about this to Biden in a phone call on Sunday.
The ICC, which is based in The Hague, has been investigating possible war crimes by both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants dating back to the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.< /p>
U.S. officials say, according to Axios, that they have no clear indication whether the ICC will issue an arrest warrant, but that NGOs and several ICC member states are pressuring the court to do so.
“Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right to self-defense,” Netanyahu wrote in a statement on X on Friday.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council declined to comment on the content of Netanyahu's conversation with Biden, but told Axios:
– As we have said publicly many times, the ICC has no jurisdiction in this situation and we do not support its investigation.