Tehran, IRNA – Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei says the United States’ sanctions on four judges of the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) are very disgraceful and despicable.
“Sanctioning judges and staff of the I.C.C. is very despicable and disgraceful, even for a system that is addicted to advancing its foreign policy through intimidation and threats,” Baqaei said on his X account.
He shared the post late on Saturday two days after the Department of State declared that it would freeze U.S.-based assets of the I.C.C. judges from Benin, Peru, Slovenia, and Uganda over the Hague-based court’s investigation into Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank.
The spokesperson said that the U.S. misuses its power in the United Nations Security Council to veto resolutions calling for the cessation of the genocide in Gaza to assure that Israel is not held accountable for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Such actions have made the U.S. complicit in the genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of aggression by the Israeli regime, he said, emphasizing that it is time for the international community to stand up against such savagery, which undermines international rights and humanitarian principles.
Washington’s move to put sanctions on the I.C.C. judges drew condemnation from the court as well. Immediately after the Thursday announcement, the court’s spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah said in a statement that the measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution, according to NBS News.
The leading international rights group, Human Rights Watch, also reacted, saying that the sanctions are a flagrant attack on the rule of law and aim to prevent the I.C.C. from seeking accountability amid “grave crimes” committed in Palestine, and as “Israeli atrocities mount in Gaza, including with U.S. complicity.”
Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also described the sanctions as “deeply corrosive of good governance and the due administration of justice.”
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