US President Donald Trump WASHINGTON, Feb 07 (Agencies): US President Donald Trump has authorized economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel, drawing condemnation - but also some praise - abroad.
The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
Trump's move, on Thursday, coincided with a visit to Washington by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC over the war in Gaza. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders said on Friday that Trump was wrong to impose sanctions on the ICC.
"Sanctions are the wrong tool," said Scholz. "They jeopardize an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars, and that is very important." Antonio Costa, the president of the European Council of EU leaders, wrote on social media platform Bluesky that sanctioning the ICC "undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole".
The Netherlands, the host nation of the court based in The Hague, also said it regretted the sanctions.
The ICC itself condemned the sanctions and said it "stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it."
But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch ally of Trump, said the sanctions showed it might be time to leave the ICC.
"It's time for Hungary to review what we're doing in an international organization that is under US sanctions! New winds are blowing in international politics. We call it the Trump-tornado," he said on X.
Court officials convened meetings in The Hague on Friday to discuss the implications of the sanctions, a source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The US sanctions include freezing any US assets of those designated and barring them and their families from visiting the United States.
It was unclear how quickly the US would announce names of people sanctioned. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC's investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members of the ICC.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's plan to seek U.S. ownership of the Gaza Strip and move out its population infuriated the Arab world. It stunned American allies and other global powers and even flummoxed members of Trump's own party. The reaction in Israel was starkly different.
The idea of removing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza - once relegated to the fringes of political discourse in the country - has found fertile ground in an Israeli public traumatized by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and grasping for ways to feel secure again after the deadliest assault in their country's history.
Jewish Israeli politicians across the spectrum either embraced the idea wholeheartedly or expressed openness to it. Newspaper columns praised its audacity and TV commentators debated how the idea could practically be set in motion. The country's defense minister ordered the military to plan for its eventual implementation.
Nearly all USAID staff to be laid off
The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of staff at the US government's giant humanitarian agency USAID to fewer than 300 people from more than 10,000, the New York Times reported Thursday.
The staff who remain include employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the Times said, citing three people with knowledge of the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Two unions representing USAID staff filed a lawsuit on Thursday over the cuts against Trump and his administration, seeking an injunction to stop the firing and furloughing of employees and dismantling of the agency, the Times said.
The suit argues that the agency cannot be unwound without the prior approval of Congress.
The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment from AFP.
USAID officials have also been told that about 800 awards and contracts administered through the agency were being canceled, the report said.
EU says US sanctions threaten ICC's independence
The EU on Friday warned sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) threaten its independence and the wider judicial system, after US President Donald Trump punished the court over its probes into America and Israel.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday saying the court in The Hague had "abused its power" by issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he held talks earlier this week.
"Sanctioning the ICC threatens the Court's independence and undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole," Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU's 27 member states, wrote on X.
The European Commission separately expressed "regret" regarding Trump's sanctions, stressing the ICC's "key importance in upholding international criminal justice and the fight against impunity."
The executive order risks "affecting ongoing investigations and proceedings, including as regards Ukraine, impacting years of efforts to ensure accountability around the world," said a commission spokesman.
"The EU will be monitoring the implications of the executive order and will assess possible further steps," added the spokesman for the bloc's executive.
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