US: Pompeo Hints at Incoming Actions Against International Criminal Court
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo strongly hinted Monday at an upcoming US pushback against the “corrupt” International Criminal Court (ICC).
In an interview to a podcast by the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, Pompeo said the action will not just be taken by the State Department — instead, a multi-agency pressure campaign appears to be on its way.
“I think that the ICC and the world will see that we are determined to prevent having Americans and our friends and allies in Israel and elsewhere hauled in by this corrupt ICC,” Pompeo asserted.
He also pointed at the proceedings over alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan at the ICC as a key issue the US has with the court, which it is not part of as it never signed its founding Rome Statute.
The ICC investigation into the alleged offenses committed by US forces in Afghanistan in 2003-2004 was given a green light in March.
At the same time, the court is also looking into the possibility of looking into the alleged war crimes committed in the West Bank and Gaza — a matter hotly contested by Israel and a number of other states as they argue that the Palestinian Authority does not live up to the standard of statehood and thus could not have referred the case into the ICC in the first place.
Read More: I24