The United States has coordinated sanctions against the International Criminal Court together with Israel, that’s according to Barak Ravid, diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13. According to the journalist, who cited local officials, the plan to impose sanctions against the organization was discussed between the two sides during the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in May. Both sides kept the issue low profile and it wasn’t mentioned during the briefings before and after the US top diplomat arrived in the country.
During Pompeo’s visit, Israel’s Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz, who is in charge of the team that works on countering the ICC investigation of Israel for war crimes, urged the US secretary of state to move forward with the sanctions against the organization. Ravid claims that in the past weeks, both countries have continued to coordinate on the issue, and US officials notified Israel in advance about the content and timing of the sanctions against the ICC.
The Trump administration’s decision to authorize sanctions against the International Criminal Court comes in response to the organization's decision to open an investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by the US and its allies in Afghanistan, where Washington has been fighting its War on Terror since 2001. However, when announcing the measure, Secretary of State Pompeo noted that it also wants to defend Israel and that the organization’s probe into war crimes allegedly committed by Israel was a contributing factor.
