U.S. sanctions ICC, vowing to dismantle it "brick by brick" without changes

The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court on Friday, taking action against the court itself after previously penalizing more than a dozen of its judges and prosecutors."Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement announcing the measures. The move came just hours after the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced it was awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, a South African-born human rights official who served as an ICC judge from 2003 to 2008. Pillay also led a U.N. inquiry that determined last year that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Israel strongly disputed the report's findings.

Neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC. Washington has long objected to the court's investigation of alleged war crimes by U.S. personnel in Afghanistan and its arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over alleged crimes in Gaza. The court maintains it can prosecute crimes committed on territory under its jurisdiction, even when the accused is a national of a country that has not joined. Rubio has previously described the ICC as a "fatally politicized supranational court" that has "maliciously abused its authority." He vowed Friday to dismantle it "brick by brick" if necessary. Under the designation,