Trump Administration Coordinated ICC Sanctions With ‘Israel’

By Staff, Agencies

The Trump administration and the Zionist entity coordinated the US authorization of sanctions against the International Criminal Court announced Thursday during Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s short visit to occupied al-Quds last month, according to Barak Ravid of ‘Israeli’ Channel 13 news citing ‘Israeli’ officials.

Ravid stressed that this was because the prosecutor of the ICC had decided to open an investigation against ‘Israel’ for war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza pending a review by the court's judges.

The judges will make a decision soon, and ‘Israel’ is seeking to use US sanctions to pressure them into shutting down the investigation, he added.

Citing figures from behind the scenes, the ‘Israeli’ journalist quoted ‘Israeli’ officials as saying that the plan to sanction the ICC was one of the main reasons for Pompeo’s trip to ‘Israel’. The discussion was kept to low profile by both sides and wasn’t mentioned during the many briefings before and after the visit.

‘Israeli’ officials said Netanyahu brought to the meeting Yuval Steinitz, the minister who led the ‘Israeli’ team that has worked on countering the ICC investigation.

And during the meeting, Netanyahu and Steinitz urged Pompeo to move forward with sanctions against ICC officials.

Relatively, in the weeks since the visit, Washington and Tel Aviv had continued their coordination on the issue. ‘Israel’ was notified in advance of the content and timing of the US sanctions, Ravid stressed.