The Biden administration plans as early as this week to revoke a Trump-era executive order levying sanctions on the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a top deputy, removing another source of friction in U.S. relations with key allies, including many of America’s European counterparts, according to two sources familiar with the decision.
The expected move is likely to ease a state of open hostility by the U.S. government toward the Hague-based international tribunal, which clashed bitterly with the Trump administration over its efforts to investigate possible war crimes by American personnel in Afghanistan and Israeli security forces in the Palestinian territories. But it is unlikely to end tension between the court and the Biden administration, which, like prior administrations, contends that the tribunal lacks standing to prosecute Israeli and U.S. nationals. Neither country has ratified the 1998 treaty creating the international court.
