WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the U.S. stance against the International Criminal Court (all times local):
7:45 a.m.
The International Criminal Court says it will continue to do its work “undeterred,” despite National security adviser John Bolton’s condemnation.
Bolton asserted Monday the court “threatens American sovereignty and U.S. national security interests.”
The Netherlands-based court said in a statement Tuesday it was established by a treaty supported by 123 countries. It says it prosecuted cases only when those countries failed to do so or did not do so “genuinely.”
The court pledges to “continue to do its work undeterred, in accordance with those principles and the overarching idea of the rule of law.”
Bolton’s speech came as an ICC judge was expected to soon announce a decision on a request from prosecutors to open an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban and Haqqani network militants and U.S. forces and intelligence in Afghanistan.
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6:30 a.m.
Iran’s foreign minister is criticizing the United States for its opposition to the International Criminal Court.
Mohammad Javad Zarif said on his Twitter account Tuesday, “The US threatens to impose sanctions on the ICC & even prosecute its judges in American courts. Where is the outrage?”
He says, “The boorishness of this rogue US regime seems to know no bounds.”
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton on Monday denounced the legitimacy of the Netherlands-based court, which was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes.
Bolton says the U.S. “will not cooperate with the ICC.” He says “the ICC is already dead to us.”
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12:55 a.m.
America’s long-running reluctant relationship with the International Criminal Court has come to a crashing halt.
Decades of U.S. suspicions about the tribunal and its global jurisdiction spilled into open hostility Monday amid threats of sanctions if it investigates U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
National security adviser John Bolton denounced the legitimacy of the Netherlands-based court, which was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes of humanity and genocide.
Human Rights Watch says any U.S. action to scuttle ICC inquiries on Afghanistan and Palestine would demonstrate the administration is more concerned with “coddling serial rights abusers” than “supporting impartial justice.”
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