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The US State Department on Tuesday while referring to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court said that the US believes the ICC does not have jurisdiction in the matter.
US Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that they had 'real concerns' about the proceedings, as the ICC is supposed to be a court of limited jurisdiction grounded in the rules of complementarity. Miller said that the ICC was a court of last resort after the proceedings of a country has ended. But, here, the ICC began its proceedings even though the Israel Defence Forces is still investigating the potential violations of humanitarian laws. "We- number one, do not believe that the ICC has jurisdiction in this matter. And two, that we have had real concerns about this proceeding on its own, grounded fundamentally in the rules of the court, that this is supposed to be a court of limited jurisdiction grounded in the rules of complementarity. When there are countries that have investigations going on - and we know that Israel has hundreds of open investigations into potential violations of international humanitarian law or violations of the IDF's own code of conduct - that the ICC is supposed to be a court of last resort after those investigations have proceeded. And we have seen them take that seriously in other cases, with respect to Venezuela, for example, where they have waited until the end of a country's proceedings before moving forward. They declined to do so here, and that's why we have concerns," he said. Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme leader of Iran on Monday commented on ICC's decision and said that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants, Times of Israel reported. Commenting on the same, Miller said that one can expect this from a country that sponsors terrorism. "Those comments, I'd say, are unfortunately what we would expect from the leader of a country that is a state sponsor of terrorism. When it comes to tensions in the region, obviously those comments are not helpful," he said. When Miller was asked if US would join Iran's nuclear talks - which are set to begin at the end of this week in Geneva, Miller said that the US will not join the talks and asserted that Iran must not escalate the conflict. "Iran should not further escalate this conflict, should not respond to Israel in any way and should not take any further steps to heighten tensions in the region. We will not be joining those talks. We are closely coordinating with our E3 partners regarding Iran's full implementation of its nuclear safeguard obligations and holding Iran accountable for its failure to meet those obligations. We have made it clear that Iran must provide full cooperation with the IAEA without further delay. We'll continue to closely coordinate with the Governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. we're concerned with Iran's announcement that it's choosing the path of continued escalation instead of cooperating with the IAEA. Its continued production and accumulation of uranium enriched up to 60 per cent has no credible civilian justification. The IAEA Board of Governors has been clear that Iran must provide full cooperation with the IAEA without delay in order to resolve questions related to its legal obligations that have been outstanding for more than five years. And we will continue to coordinate with our E3 partners to hold Iran accountable," he said. (ANI)
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