‘America never joined the court. We don’t need it. And we don’t want it,’ Rubio said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press before boarding a plane to Iceland at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Oct. 5, 2026. Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images
WASHINGTON—The State Department imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, saying Washington “will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.”
“For decades, Republicans and Democrats alike rejected the idea that the International Criminal Court had the power to prosecute American citizens, military service members, or political leaders,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.
“America never joined the court. We don’t need it. And we don’t want it.”
The United States has opposed ICC efforts to investigate or prosecute American military and intelligence officers for actions in Afghanistan or other previous operations.
Washington has consistently held that the ICC lacks jurisdiction over citizens of countries that have not ratified the Rome Statute.
“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said in his statement.
The ICC’s deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, condemned the U.S. sanctions.
“The sanctions are intended to undermine the rule of law internationally and the work that an independent judicial institution is doing,” Khan said. “Our work will continue across all our situations, our investigations and our prosecutions.”
In February 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against the ICC over alleged bias against Israel and the United States.
The move came in response to the ICC issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas terrorist group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Neither the United States nor Israel is a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC in 2002.
Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the court arrests and prosecutes foreign individuals for crimes against humanity. Currently, 125 countries are under the statute.
The State Department’s latest sanctions build on the president’s order, which has already sanctioned 17 individuals.
According to a fact sheet released by the State Department, all ICC property and financial interests within the United States or controlled by U.S. individuals are frozen. They will be reported to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
U.S. individuals are prohibited from conducting transactions with the ICC without specific authorization. These prohibitions include providing the ICC with goods, services, or funds.
In addition to these sanctions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will issue general licenses (GLs) to provide temporary exemptions to facilitate a smooth transition and protect U.S. interests, according to the fact sheet.
These licenses offer a 180-day window for certain ICC operations to continue while member states address U.S. legal and diplomatic concerns. The licenses will permit specific IT services, pension plans, and operations related to ICC detainees.
The foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and the UK issued a joint statement, criticizing the U.S. sanctions.
“As committed supporters of the ICC we regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States,” they wrote.