On Thursday, the US Treasury Department announced it had imposed sanctions on Karim Khan, a British lawyer who is the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), an action taken on behalf of Israel.
The sanctions came after President Trump signed an executive order to target the court in response to the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over their role in war crimes in Gaza.
Under the sanctions, any of the assets Khan may have in the US have been frozen, and he is barred from entering the country. Khan also sought arrest warrants for three top Hamas officials, but they have all been killed by Israel.
In his executive order, Trump accused the ICC of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” In his first term, Trump sanctioned the previous ICC prosecutor over the court opening investigations into war crimes in Afghanistan committed by all sides, including US troops.
The Biden administration reversed the sanctions on the ICC, and the court later dropped its investigations into the US. President Biden supported the court against Russia but also opposed its actions against Israel since the US is implicated due to the massive support it provided for the genocidal war on Gaza.
Both Biden and Trump have also opposed the International Court of Justice’s genocide case against Israel, which was brought to the court by South Africa. Trump recently suspended aid to South Africa and listed the ICJ case as one of the reasons.
