ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
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ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.



Iran: We Will Not Retreat from Our Principles in Nuclear Talks

President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, visit an exhibition of Iran’s nuclear industry achievements, last April (Iranian Presidency)
President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, visit an exhibition of Iran’s nuclear industry achievements, last April (Iranian Presidency)
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Iran: We Will Not Retreat from Our Principles in Nuclear Talks

President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, visit an exhibition of Iran’s nuclear industry achievements, last April (Iranian Presidency)
President Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, visit an exhibition of Iran’s nuclear industry achievements, last April (Iranian Presidency)

Iran on Tuesday said it is open to accepting temporary limits on its uranium enrichment but Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian pledged that his country will never retreat from its core principles in the nuclear talks.

“These negotiations will be fully aligned with the Supreme Leader’s guidance, which will light our path,” the president said in a meeting with members of the Iranian Parliament’s Independent Faction.

He added, “We have not tied the livelihood of our people to the outcome of these talks - nor will we ever do so. We will never retreat from our principles in these negotiations, but we do not seek tension either.”

Tehran and Washington held their fourth round of nuclear talks on Sunday in Doha, with no apparent breakthrough.

On Tuesday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi informed the National Security Committee that during indirect talks with the US, “uranium enrichment is a non-negotiable red line.”

“Uranium enrichment in Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is a red line for the country, alongside its defense and regional strength. Iran is not engaging in discussions regarding its enrichment principles,” Gharibabadi said, according to Ebrahim Rezaei, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy commission.

Rezaei said some lawmakers suggested Tehran should withdraw from the nuclear talks “until Iran's right to enrichment is publicly recognized, and sanctions and threats are stopped.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi again said Iran is open to accepting temporary limits on its uranium enrichment, without abandoning its nuclear program as requested by the US administration.

“For a limited period of time, we can accept a series of restrictions on the level and volume of enrichment,” said Takht-Ravanchi.

“We have not yet gone into details about the level and volume of enrichment,” he said, quoted by Tasnim news agency.

The Iranian official added that negotiations are still in the early stages, and no specific details about the limitations have been discussed yet.

“We have not reached the stage where we would determine a specific timeframe or enrichment percentage,” he said.

Takht-Ravanchi then argued that US behavior undermines trust. “American officials' threatening and non-threatening statements fail to build confidence and instead cast doubts and suspicions on Washington's position,” he noted.

On Monday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards aerospace commander, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said the country’s offensive capabilities have expanded, and that Iran’s adversaries are now more vulnerable to retaliation than ever before.

In a closed-door session with Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Hajizadeh dismissed recent reports suggesting a decline in Iran’s defense strength as part of what he called a Western and Israeli media campaign aimed at undermining Iran’s image.