Rubio says US will dismantle ICC 'brick by brick'
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Mon, 07/13/2026 - 18:59
Secretary of State issues broadside against the court that issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a trilateral meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun (not pictured) on the sidelines of the Nato Summit in Ankara, on 7 July 2026 (Yves Herman/Pool/AFP)
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration is working to “dismantle the [International Criminal Court] brick by brick”, throwing down a public gauntlet to the court that issued an arrest warrant in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The ICC’s interfering with American military and law enforcement operations isn’t just only a grave overreach of its purported authorities. It would mean the death of the US as a sovereign and independent nation,” Rubio wrote in an opinion article published by The Wall Street Journal on Monday.
"Using all the tools at our government’s disposal, working beside every ally with whom we can make common cause, we will dismantle the ICC - brick by brick, if necessary," he said.
Rubio also filmed a monologue on the issue, which was released on X on Monday, in which he accused the court of trying to take away Americans' rights to abide by their own laws and stand in front of a jury of their peers when accused of committing a crime.
"But today powerful people in far away places want to take that away from us. They believe that they should be in charge of your laws, of your country, your life - and they don't care whether or not you agree," he said in the video.
He said that Americans likely don't know the names of the judges, prosecutors or presidents of the international court, and that they "shouldn't have to", while accusing the ICC of waging a war against the US.
Rubio’s criticism noted “bipartisan” opposition to the court, which was founded in 2002 in response to genocides and atrocities in war zones such as Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Notably, Rubio made no direct mention of the outstanding arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for their alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza, where over 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
The court also issued warrants for Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes that happened during the 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel. They were subsequently assassinated by Israel.
'Smug globalists'
Rubio pitched the White House’s decision to destroy the court in nationalist terms.
"The US is launching a diplomatic campaign with a simple message - sovereign states over globalism," he said.
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“Our forefathers fought a revolution against a foreign power transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences," Rubio said, noting a 200-year-old British colonial policy.
“Independence is our birthright. We don’t intend to trade it for rule by a self-appointed priesthood of ‘international law’.”
Rubio noted a 2020 investigation by the ICC into US soldiers for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. He said that the court could eventually investigate US Border Patrol agents and Marines.
“The ICC is backed and run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernment organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity toward the US,” he said.
In his video on X, he said that while the court was created ostensibly to prosecute the gravest of crimes in countries where their own courts couldn't prosecute them, the "truth is it was something far more radical and extreme: It was a global tribunal staffed by globalist unelected bureaucrats who claim their power is almost unlimited".
In reality, the court has 125 member countries, including all the members of the European Union.
The countries most hostile to the court have long been the world’s major powers, which do not want to submit to its jurisdiction. The US’s main geopolitical foes, Russia and China, are not members of the ICC.
In 2002, President George W Bush formally withdrew and passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act (ASPA), which restricted US cooperation with the ICC. ASPA even authorises the use of force to free detained US personnel, earning it the nickname, the "Hague Invasion Act".
Washington also pressured countries into signing bilateral immunity agreements to prevent them from surrendering US nationals to the ICC.
Diplomatic war
Rubio’s broadside against the court will confirm views that the US and its closest partners are waging a diplomatic war on it because of its efforts to hold Israel to account for war crimes in Gaza, which has been deemed a genocide by the United Nations, human rights bodies and genocide scholars.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year sanctioning ICC judges over investigations into top Israeli officials.
The measures have affected the judges' freedom of movement, their physical security, their families and their ability to carry out basic daily transactions, MEE reported previously.
MEE has also reported exclusively on a campaign waged against the court by former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
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MEE revealed that Cameron privately threatened Karim Khan, the British chief prosecutor at the ICC, in April 2024, to defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
The US played a role in the early development of the ICC and signed the Rome Statute in 2000 under the presidency of Bill Clinton. But it was never submitted to the Senate for ratification amid fears that the ICC could prosecute US military personnel and officials for alleged war crimes, especially in conflicts like Afghanistan and Iraq.
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Rubio issued a dire warning at the end of his video monologue.
"This administration will not sit by as the ICC and its allies seek to threaten our people. If they believe they can deprive us of our sovereignty, we will teach them the full meaning of American resolve."
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