President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors at the International Criminal Court, as Washington kept up its pressure on the war tribunal over its targeting of Israeli leaders.
Washington designated Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada, according to the US Treasury and State Department.
ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Ibrahim al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict.
Guillou is an ICC judge who presided over a pre-trial panel that issued the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Khan and Niang are the court's two deputy prosecutors.
The move comes less than three months after the administration took the unprecedented step of slapping sanctions on four separate ICC judges, saying they have engaged in ICC's "illegitimate and baseless actions" targeting the US and close ally Israel.
ICC, which had slammed the move in June, describing it as an attempt to undermine the independence of the judicial institution, deplored the latest sanctions.
"These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 states parties from all regions," the ICC said in a statement.
"They constitute also an affront against the Court's States Parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world," the court added. "The ICC will continue fulfilling mandates in strict accordance with its legal framework, without regard to any pressure or threat."
The ICC, which was established in 2002, has international jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in member states or if a situation is referred by the UN Security Council. The United States, China, Russia, and Israel are not members.
It has high-profile war crimes investigations under way into the Israel-Hamas conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as in Sudan, Myanmar, the Philippines, Venezuela, and Afghanistan.
The sanctions freeze any US assets the individuals may have and essentially cut them off from the US financial system.
