Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said in a post on his X account on Tuesday that the United States was seeking to shield American and Israeli officials and military personnel from accountability.
“Washington is threatening ICC member states with sanctions, visa revocations and political pressure to stop cooperating with the court in order to build a protective wall around officials and military personnel of the US and Israeli regime,” he wrote, IRNA reported.
“This is overt blackmail and intimidation to suffocate justice before it reaches the American-Zionist defendants.”
The remarks came after the US State Department announced on Monday the launch of a broad campaign to counter what it called ICC “threats.”
According to the US statement, the initiative will involve a coordinated, government-wide response aimed at systematically disabling the ICC’s ability to operate, prosecute US military personnel or officials, or take actions that it deemed to threaten US sovereignty.
The measures outlined by Washington include diplomatic efforts to compel countries to withdraw from the ICC, pressure on security partners to reject the court’s jurisdiction over Americans, reviews of US assistance, visa restrictions, travel bans and expanded sanctions targeting ICC personnel and affiliated organizations.
MNA