ICC warrants are binding, EU cannot pick and choose, EU’s Borrell says

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ICC warrants are binding, EU cannot pick and choose, EU’s Borrell says

By Michele Kambas

NICOSIA (Reuters) – ********* Union governments cannot pick and choose whether to ******** arrest warrants issued by the International ********* Court against two ******** leaders and a ****** commander, the EU’s foreign policy chief said on Saturday.

The ICC issued the warrants on Thursday against ******** Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and ****** leader Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged ******* against humanity.

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All EU member states are signatories to the ICC’s founding treaty, called the Rome Statute.

Several EU states have said they will meet their commitments under the statute if needed, but Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him he would face no risks if he did so.

“The states that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It’s not optional,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said during a visit to Cyprus for a workshop of ******** and ************ peace activists.

Those same obligations were also binding on countries aspiring to join the EU, he said.

“It would be very funny that the newcomers have an obligation that current members don’t fulfil,” he told Reuters.

The ******* States rejected the ICC’s decision and ******* said the ICC move was antisemitic.

“Every time someone disagrees with the policy of one ******** government – (they are) being accused of antisemitism,” said Borrell, whose term as EU foreign policy chief ends this month.

“I have the right to criticise the decisions of the ******** government, be it Mr Netanyahu or someone else, without being accused of antisemitism. This is not acceptable. That’s enough.”

*******’s 13-month campaign in Gaza has ******* about 44,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all the enclave’s population while creating a humanitarian crisis, Gaza officials say.

******* began its offensive after the ******-led ******* on Oct. 7, 2023, which ******* 1,200 people in southern *******, with more than 250 others taken ********, ******* has said.

In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including *******, persecution and starvation as a ******* of war as part of a “widespread and systematic ******* against the civilian population of Gaza”.

The warrant for Masri lists charges of mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. ******* says it has ******* Masri.

(Reporting by Michele Kambas, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

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