Biden: ICC decision unprecedented, cannot equate Israel and Hamas

(Patria) - The request of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is "unprecedented", believes US President Joe Biden, reports VOA.

"And let me be clear - whatever this prosecutor implies, there is no equivalence - no equivalence - between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security," Biden said in a statement.

ICC chief prosecutor in The Hague, Karim Khan, announced yesterday that he had requested arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and Hamas, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in connection with their actions during the seven-month war.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said yesterday that the US "fundamentally rejects" Khan's decision.

- We reject the prosecutor's equation of Israel and Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans - Blinken stated.

He recalled that the US had been clear even before the conflict in Gaza that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over this matter.

"The ICC was established by its member states as a court of limited jurisdiction. These limitations are rooted in the principles of complementarity, which appear not to have been applied here amidst the prosecutor's rush to seek these arrest warrants, instead of allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.

In other situations, the prosecutor has prioritized national investigations and cooperated with states to give them time to investigate. The prosecutor has not given Israel the same opportunity, where investigations into accusations against personnel are currently underway," Blinken's statement reads.

The ICC is the world's first permanent international court for war crimes. States that recognize it, 124 of them, are obliged to immediately arrest the wanted person if they are on their territory, but the court has no means to enforce arrest warrants.

Israel and its main ally - the US are not members of the ICC, nor are China and Russia.

The statement also emphasizes that there are "deeply concerning procedural issues" and recalls that "although not a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the prosecutor".

"Even the prosecutor himself was supposed to visit Israel next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli government. Representatives of the prosecutor's office were supposed to land in Israel today to coordinate the visit.

Israel was informed that they did not board the flight at approximately the same time the prosecutor went on cable television to announce the charges. These and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation," the statement said.

It is also stated that the prosecutor's decision "does not help at all, and could jeopardize ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would lead to the release of hostages and increase humanitarian aid, which are goals that the United States continues to pursue tirelessly".

Israel Katz, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, called the ICC's move "scandalous" and equivalent to an attack on the victims of October 7th. He stated that he had opened a special war cabinet to counter the ICC's move, adding that no force in the world would prevent Israel from returning hostages from Gaza and overthrowing Hamas.

Hamas announced that it "strongly condemns" the ICC prosecutor's request. "The Hamas movement most strongly condemns the attempts by the ICC prosecutor to equate the victim with the perpetrator by issuing arrest warrants for a number of Palestinian resistance leaders," Hamas said in a statement.