EASTORA REPORT | A warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu has turned into a dispute over whether an international court could one day pursue an American official. Marco Rubio wants U.S. allies to stop that possibility. If they cannot, he says Washington is prepared to punish the court further.
Before flying to Paris for G7 talks on Sunday, November 8, the secretary of state told reporters that the International Criminal Court must renounce what he sees as jurisdiction over citizens of countries that never joined it. “The ICC will not be in good shape if we have to get there,” he warned. “They still have a chance.”
The argument grew out of arrest warrants issued in November 2024 for Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Both deny wrongdoing. Neither Israel nor the United States belongs to the ICC.
But membership is not the whole legal question. The court says it can investigate crimes committed on the territory of a member state, even if the accused is from a country outside the treaty. Its judges have ruled that its jurisdiction extends to Gaza. Rubio rejects the prospect of that authority being used against American troops or leaders.
Washington has already acted. On October 9, the Trump administration sanctioned the court itself, after targeting individual judges and prosecutors. Temporary U.S. licenses allow some operations to continue, including a provision lasting until April 2027. European governments have been seeking ways to keep the court operating.
In Paris on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas answered Rubio’s position: “The ICC is not against countries. It is actually against war crimes.” She said a European measure to block the effect of U.S. sanctions remained an option, though not her first choice.
Rubio announced no new sanction or deadline. He instead asked allies to persuade the court to change course. Europe says the court must be able to work. The decision confronting both sides is whether protecting Americans from its reach means limiting the jurisdiction its members agreed to recognize.