EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell stated that the governments of the European Union countries cannot choose whether to execute the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against two Israeli leaders and a Hamas commander.
This is reported by Reuters.
So, all EU member states have signed the ICC's founding treaty, called the Rome Statute. Several EU countries have stated that they will fulfill their obligations under the statute if necessary, and at the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán invited Netanyahu to visit his country, assuring him that this would not pose any risks to him.
"States that have signed the Rome Convention are obliged to execute the court's decisions. This is not optional," said Josep Borrell during a visit to Cyprus for a seminar of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.
According to him, these same obligations are mandatory for countries seeking to join the EU.
"It would be very ridiculous if newcomers were to be given obligations that current members do not fulfill," he said in an interview with the publication.
At the same time, the United States rejected the ICC decision, and Israel stated that the ICC decision was anti-Semitic.
"Every time someone disagrees with the policy of one Israeli government, they are accused of anti-Semitism. I have the right to criticize the decisions of the Israeli government, whether it is Mr. Netanyahu or someone else, without accusations of anti-Semitism. This is unacceptable. Enough," Josep Borrell said.
As a reminder, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al Masri for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In their decision to issue the warrants, the ICC judges stated that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the famine in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians.
In turn, the Office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized and called "anti-Semitic" the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
US President Joe Biden criticized the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
It should be noted that in September, russian dictator vladimir putin made his first visit to an ICC member state after an arrest warrant was issued for him in March 2023 for the abduction of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
On September 3, a spokesman for the Mongolian government said that the country had been unable to arrest russian dictator vladimir putin because it was dependent on imports of russian oil products.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced a demarche to the Mongolian side due to the refusal of the signatory country to the Rome Statute to arrest russian dictator vladimir putin.
The International Criminal Court recognized that Mongolia had violated its obligations when it failed to arrest russian dictator vladimir putin during his visit to Ulaanbaatar.
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