Iran: US anti-ICC campaign is blackmail to suppress justice

Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, condemned the United States’ campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC) as an act of blackmail aimed at suppressing justice. In a post on his X account on Tuesday, Gharibabadi stated that Washington is threatening ICC member states with sanctions, visa revocations, and political pressure to stop cooperating with the court. He wrote, "This is overt blackmail and intimidation to suffocate justice before it reaches the American-Zionist defendants." His remarks came in response to a US State Department announcement on Monday launching a broad campaign to counter what it called ICC "threats." According to the US statement, the initiative involves a coordinated, government-wide response to systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, prosecute US military personnel or officials, or take actions deemed to threaten US sovereignty. The measures include diplomatic efforts to compel countries to withdraw from the ICC, pressure on security partners to reject the court’s jurisdiction over Americans, reviews of US assistance, visa restrictions, travel bans, and expanded sanctions targeting ICC personnel and affiliated organizations. According to Mehr News, Gharibabadi emphasized that the US is seeking to build a protective wall around officials and military personnel of the US and Israeli regime, shielding them from accountability.