'We Will Not Arrest Him': UN Ambassador Says US Would Flout ICC Warrant Against Netanyahu

The Biden administration's envoy to the United Nations said Thursday that the U.S. would not abide by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I think you know the answer to the question about whether we will arrest [Prime Minister] Netanyahu," Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in response to Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). "He was here in the United States a few weeks ago and he was not arrested."

When Whitson pointed out that ICC judges have not yet approved prosecutor Karim Khan's application for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu, Thomas-Greenfield said: "Okay, well, let me be clear: We will not arrest him."

Watch the exchange:

Thomas-Greenfield's remarks came days after Khan urged ICC judges to expedite their decision on his May request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders, citing "ongoing criminality" in the Gaza Strip.

Khan said earlier this week that the arrest warrants are needed to "prevent the continuing commission of the crimes alleged," including the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and "extermination."

The Biden administration has opposed Khan's investigation of war crimes in the Palestinian territories and Israel since it began in 2021, arguing that the ICC does not have jurisdiction there. Israel, like the U.S., is not a party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.

Thomas-Greenfield reiterated U.S. opposition to ICC prosecutor's arrest warrant request on Thursday even after a key ally, the United Kingdom, dropped its objections to the proposed warrants against Israeli leaders in the face of Gaza's worsening humanitarian catastrophe. The U.S. has been accused of hypocrisy for opposing the arrest warrant request for Israeli leaders while readily supporting the ICC's arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes in Ukraine, even though neither Russia nor Ukraine is a state party to the Rome Statute.

The U.S. envoy also said Thursday that she does "not believe the Palestinians, as they exist right now, have all the elements to give it statehood," a position that makes the U.S. an outlier in the international community.

Atrocities continued to mount across the Gaza Strip this week as the U.S.—Israel's leading arms supplier—doubled down on its rejection of efforts to hold Israeli leaders accountable.

Citing medical sources in the Palestinian enclave, Al Jazeera reported Friday that "at least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the early hours of this morning."

"This number includes five members of the same family who, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, were killed in an attack on al-Mawasi in south Gaza this morning," the outlet added. "It said two children were among those killed."