Commenting on X, former Twitter, on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the move marked a “new low,” even for a country such as the US, which was “badly” addicted to using sanctions and intimidation towards realizing its foreign policy goals.
The US, he said, has issued the coercive measures in line with its way of abusing its power and obstructing international justice.
The administration of President Donald Trump imposed the measures on Friday in response to the court’s serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the warrant last year, amid the regime’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip that began in October 2023.
The war has so far claimed the lives of around 55,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The American sanctions were also meant to punish the court’s judges for investigating the war crimes that had been committed by American troops in Afghanistan during the US’s invasion of the Asian country.
Washington dismissed the probes as “illegitimate and baseless.”
Baghaei, however, said the American bans were aimed at “ensuring maximum impunity for Israel’s atrocity crimes and ethnic cleansing in occupied Palestine.”
The spokesman cited an earlier case in point across the US’s policies as the American diplomatic representatives at the United Nations Security Council’s vetoing a draft resolution mandating “permanent” ceasefire in the Israeli war.
Such moves, the official regretted, had made the United States “the most enduring & persistent accomplice in Israeli regime’s horrifying crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.”
Baghaei urged the international community to act in response to the deadly American-Israeli partnership, warning that the US’s actions were undermining international law and threatening the foundational principles of humanity.
