WANA (Jun 08) – Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reacted to the U.S. decision to sanction four judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling it a “contemptible and disgraceful” move aimed at intimidating the court for carrying out its judicial duties.

 

In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Baghaei wrote: “Even for a system deeply addicted to conducting its foreign policy through threats and intimidation, sanctioning and harassing ICC judges and staff for fulfilling their judicial mandate is contemptible and disgraceful.”

 

He went on to say: “The United States continues to abuse its position in the UN Security Council to block any resolution aimed at halting the genocide in Gaza, while simultaneously using its power and influence to ensure maximum impunity for the Israeli regime in the face of horrific crimes and ethnic cleansing in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

 

Baghaei asserted that such actions make the United States “the most persistent and determined accomplice in the heinous crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of aggression committed by the Israeli regime.”

 

The Iranian spokesperson concluded by emphasizing: “It is high time for the international community to rise against this brutality, which is shaking the foundations of international law and corroding core human principles.”

 

His remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Thursday that the U.S. had imposed sanctions on four ICC judges — Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin, and Bettina Hofer of Slovenia — under Executive Order 14203, originally issued during the Trump administration.

 

Senator Marco Rubio claimed that these judges had been directly involved in ICC efforts to investigate, arrest, or prosecute U.S. nationals or Israeli officials, even though neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.