US does not recognize ICC jurisdiction, though welcomes court’s decision to issue ‘arrest warrant’ for Putin
Washington’s reaction to the International Criminal Court’s “arrest warrant” for Russian President Vladimir Putin appears schizophrenic, Moscow’s diplomatic mission to the country has said. The embassy added that the United States, while uncooperative with the tribunal in cases involving Americans, was quick to welcome its latest ruling on Russia.
In a Friday post on Telegram, the Russian Embassy said the U.S. position is “reminiscent of slow schizophrenia,“as”all US officials have repeated in unison that the ICC is not a decree for the United States— while those same officials say the court has good cause to go after Putin, as well as Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, the statement said.
“In the interests of its own geopolitical interests, Washington is supporting the unprecedented legal bacchanalia unleashed by the ICC, knowing full well that Russia, like the United States, does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC,the embassy said, adding that the ICC’s attempt to investigate alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan in 2020 led to the US imposing sanctions on the then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, US President Joe Biden said he believed the ICC’s decision regarding his Russian counterpart was “justified,like putinmanifestly committed war crimes.He is quick to add, however, that the court is “not recognized internationally by us either.”
The United States withdrew from the ICC in 2002, passing a law that allows “all necessary and appropriate means— including military force — to release any American or allied national if detained by the court.
Commenting on the latest ICC decision and its claims that Putin and Lvova-Belova are responsible for the “illegal transferof children from Ukraine to Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted on Friday that “Russia, like many other states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court.”
Peskov described the arrest warrants as “scandalous and unacceptable,“dismissing them as”null and void from a legal point of view.
Besides the United States and Russia, a number of other countries do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, including China, India, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.