US Ends Sanctions, Visa Restrictions against ICC Personnel

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Friday that US President Joe Biden revoked Trump-era Executive Order 13928 on “Blocking Property of Certain Person Associated with the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

As a result, the US government lifted previously imposed economic sanctions against ICC Prosecutor Bensouda and her assistant Mochochoko, as well as “visa restrictions in connection with the Court,” Blinken detailed.

The ICC officials were originally sanctioned by the State Department in September 2020, after former US President Donald Trump declared the Court’s investigation into US war crimes in Afghanistan posed a national security threat.

“These actions on the part of the ICC, in turn, threaten to infringe upon the sovereignty of the United States and impede the critical national security and foreign policy work of United States Government and allied officials, and thereby threaten the national security and foreign policy of the United States,” Trump claimed in his June 2020 executive order.

Blinken emphasized Friday that the State Department under the Biden administration continues “to disagree strongly with the ICC’s actions relating to the Afghanistan and Palestinian situations.”

“We maintain our longstanding objection to the Court’s efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-States Parties such as the United States and Israel,” he said. “We believe, however, that our concerns about these cases would be better addressed through engagement with all stakeholders in the ICC process rather than through the imposition of sanctions.”

The ICC has yet to issue a public response to the US move, but the Court did immediately condemn Washington’s economic sanctions back in September 2020.

Source: Agencies