President Joe Biden came out swinging at news the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Biden termed the prosecutor's action "outrageous" in his Monday statement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated Biden's opinion as he too came out to denounce the prosecutor's act of putting Israel on a par with Hamas as "shameful".
"We reject the prosecutor's equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organisation that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people, hostage, including Americans," Blinken said.
Blinken said that the US has already communicated the position even before the present conflict flared up, saying that the ICC had no jurisdiction on the matter. He said that Israel was cooperating with the prosecutor, even though the country is not a member of the court.
"Fundamentally, this decision does nothing to help and could jeopardise, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in, which are the goals the US continues to pursue relentlessly," Blinken said.
Read also | UK PM Sunak faces revolt over plans to scrap Graduate Route visa, Claims Report
