Trump's 'sweeping' ICC sanctions over Netanyahu arrest warrant are imminent: Reports

Trump's 'sweeping' ICC sanctions over Netanyahu arrest warrant are imminent: Reports

Submitted by MEE staff on Mon, 09/21/2026 - 10:47 Measures expected as early as this week could sever the court from much of the global financial system and disrupt war crimes investigations US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, 18 September 2026 (Evan Vucci/Reuters) Off

The Trump administration is preparing "sweeping" sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) that could be finalised as early as this week, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The proposed measures would target the court as an institution after sanctions were imposed on half of its 18 judges and most of its leadership, including the court’s president and chief prosecutor, in response to its 2024 arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

Officials and experts have long warned that sanctioning the institution itself rather than individuals would amount to a “doomsday scenario” due to its potentially debilitating impact on daily transactions that are reliant on the US financial system. 

Citing documents it had reviewed and US officials, the WSJ reported that the sanctions would prohibit most transactions with the ICC following a grace period of six to seven months.

The restrictions could prevent the court from conducting transactions in US dollars, effectively cutting it off from large parts of the international financial system and potentially crippling its operations. Banks tend to over-comply with sanctions because of their dependence on that system.

Anonymous US officials told the newspaper that the measures could be approved during the UN General Assembly’s high-level meeting this week or shortly afterwards.

The proposed sanctions would contain an exemption for transactions involving communications services, the WSJ reported, citing documents.

Middle East Eye has contacted the US State Department for comment.

Reuters also reported that sanctions against the entire ICC had already been prepared and that the administration planned to announce them soon, citing two people familiar with the matter. The precise timing remained unclear, its sources said.

The news agency reported that entity-wide sanctions imposed by the US Treasury would prohibit American citizens and companies from providing funds, goods or services to the court without a licence from the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

EU urged to trigger protection mechanism

ICC officials have previously warned that sanctions targeting the institution could disrupt the purchase of IT services and insurance, the recruitment of investigators and routine financial operations, including payments to dozens of American employees.

Many have called on the European Union to activate its Blocking Statute, a regulation that aims to protect EU companies and individuals from the effects of extraterritorial sanctions imposed by third countries, essentially preventing them from complying with foreign laws that could harm their business operations within the EU, even if those laws target activities outside the EU jurisdiction.

'Everything must be ready to activate the EU Blocking Statute to shield the ICC from US sanctions targeting it as an institution'

- Sergey Vasiliev, ICC expert

If activated, the Blocking Statute would assure EU-based service providers that their transactions with the ICC are protected.

The European Commission has so far not triggered the mechanism, offering no public explanation for the delay, despite the European Parliament having passed resolutions calling for its activation in July and September last year.

ICC expert Sergey Vasiliev criticised ICC states and the EU for failing to prepare for institutional sanctions despite being aware of the US government’s intention to impose them. 

“States Parties have had ample time to prepare for this and undertake contingency planning,” Vasiliev, who is a professor of international law at the Open University of the Netherlands, wrote on X.

“Everything must be ready to activate the EU Blocking Statute to shield the ICC from US sanctions targeting it as an institution,” he added. “The EU Commission and all EU member states that considered this measure premature or too radical must now realise that it can no longer be postponed.”

Washington has already imposed sanctions on several ICC top officials, including court president Tomoko Akane, who was sanctioned in August along with senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye.

Former chief prosecutor Karim Khan was the first to be sanctioned in February last year, followed by two deputy prosecutors and nine judges involved in the court’s Palestine and Afghanistan investigations. 

The sanctions on court staff have been described as tantamount to a “financial death penalty” as the affected officials have been cut off from basic financial services. 

'Brick by brick'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July announced in an article for the WSJ a US campaign to isolate the ICC, urging countries to withdraw from the tribunal and warning that Washington would dismantle it “brick by brick” if necessary.

Meanwhile, rights groups have attempted to challenge the sanctions in US courts.

Last month, four US-based rights groups sued the Trump administration for the sanctions, denouncing them as “blatantly illegal”.

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The American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute said they were being forced "to curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work in violation of... First and Fifth Amendment rights under the US Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act", given that anyone who appears to associate with ICC cases or officials could now face legal repercussions. 

And in July, Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn) as well as the Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide (Taag) filed a lawsuit in a New York City federal court, seeking an injunction to stop the Trump administration's enforcement of sanctions against groups or individuals liaising with the ICC.

The groups said they felt compelled to go to court immediately after Rubio’s opinion piece.

MEE reported in December that diplomats at the ICC's annual Assembly of States Parties meeting in The Hague said the Trump administration had pressed the court to drop its investigations into war crimes in Palestine and Afghanistan as a condition for lifting sanctions. 

It also demanded that states amend the ICC’s founding treaty - the Rome Statute - to prevent the prosecution of nationals from countries that are not members of the court, such as the US and Israel. 

At the end of its meeting, however, the assembly issued a declaration resisting those demands and rejecting calls to amend the Rome Statute, without naming the US directly.

The court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, primarily in connection with the use of starvation as a method of warfare. 

The ICC also sought warrants for three Hamas leaders, although those named have since been killed.

Established in 2002, the ICC is the world’s only permanent international criminal court with the mandate to investigate and prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The court currently has over a dozen active investigations, including the situations in Darfur, Libya, Myanmar and Ukraine.

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