US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday vowed to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court and called on other countries to join the effort as the Trump administration significantly intensifies its campaign against the global institution.
Rubio accused the ICC of “waging war against our country not with bullets or missiles” but with “the force of so-called international law.”
The administration’s anger at the ICC dates back to President Donald Trump’s first term, when it attacked the ICC for attempting to investigate alleged war crimes committed by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The second Trump administration imposed a series of sanctions against ICC officials for their attempts to investigate the US and Israel.
However, the State Department-led “whole-of-government campaign” to dismantle the ICC represents a significant escalation, especially as it seeks to pressure countries around the world to join and threatens potential cuts in U.S. aid to those that do not.
“Countries that refuse to reject the false authority of the ICC while relying on U.S. assistance will likely face greater scrutiny,” a State Department official said Monday.
“Using every tool at our government’s disposal, working together with all the allies with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC—one brick at a time, if necessary,” Rubio wrote in a separate Wall Street Journal op-ed on Monday. Those tools include possible travel bans, visa revocations and increased sanctions, a State Department official said.
The official said countries “that cooperate with U.S. law enforcement, host U.S. military presence, or benefit from the broader U.S. security umbrella are encouraged to reject the ICC’s purported authority to prosecute U.S. officials and military personnel,” the official said.
“We will watch with interest which countries will join us in the fight against this threat to Americans who are willing to risk their lives to protect others,” they said.
Senior officials, including the secretary of state, deputy secretary of state and U.S. ambassadors, are “encouraging countries to engage in a campaign to diplomatically isolate the International Criminal Court and ensure it does not prosecute Americans,” the official said.
The calls are intended to persuade countries that are parties to the ICC to withdraw from it “and cease all financial support for the court,” they said.
CNN has reached out to the ICC for comment.
The administration is also calling on countries that are not parties to the court, such as the United States, to “use their diplomatic networks to take similar actions with us.”
In his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Rubio accused the ICC of being “backed and controlled by a powerful network of leftist non-governmental organizations, complacent globalists and hostile Third World governments united in their enmity toward the United States.”
Rubio rejected accusations from outside groups that the administration’s deportations to El Salvador and deadly boat strikes on suspected narco-terrorists violated international law and rejected one group’s call for the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged U.S. war crimes in Iran, but he said such actions could lead to a court investigation.