Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized U.S. President Joe Biden after the White House opposed imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials. "I’m surprised and disappointed," Netanyahu said in an interview with Sirius XM’s “The Morgan Ortagus Show,” set to air on Sunday, a portion of which was released in Politico
Netanyahu expressed disappointment after the White House said on Tuesday that it would not support the Republican effort in Congress to punish ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who sought to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of war crimes.
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Joe Biden, International Criminal Court, Benjamin Netanyahu
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The announcement contradicted comments made a few days earlier by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who signaled the Biden administration's willingness to cooperate with Republicans to respond to the issuing of arrest warrants, which Biden himself criticized as "outrageous."
“The United States said that they would, in fact, back the sanctions bill. I thought that was still the American position because there was a bipartisan consensus just a few days ago," Netanyahu said in the released segment of the interview. "Now you say there’s a question mark, and frankly I’m surprised and disappointed.”
At a recent Congressional hearing, Blinken reiterated his strong opposition to the ICC prosecutor's request to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, along with senior Hamas officials, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Blinken said during the hearing that the Biden administration is "open" to working with lawmakers in Congress to take action against the ICC, which the U.S. is not a part of and, similar to Israel, opposes its claim of jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.
During the hearing, Blinken didn’t specify what measures the Biden administration would be willing to take to support Israel, but without the support of the Democratic Party, the Republican legislative initiative would probably fail.