WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States will embark on a sweeping campaign to dismantle the International Criminal Court, claiming the world body is a threat to American sovereignty.

The ICC, which has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other highly ranked Israeli officials on charges including war crimes, has already been heavily sanctioned as a result of those actions. Judges, other officials, and prosecutors have also been targeted.

News that further actions, culminating in 'a sweeping campaign' to dismantle the court, comes as a shock, as America's allies are all members of the court and stand by its actions and decisions. 

"The ICC poses an intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty – it claims the authority to prosecute and even imprison American servicemen and officials operating on behalf of America's national interest. Americans never signed up for this, and all American presidents since the ICC's ratification have maintained that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Americans," a statement issued by the State Department on Monday said. 

The statement also lamented that when the international court had opened investigations into U.S. service members and intelligence officers, when called upon by the U.S., it had refused to close those cases.

"The ICC now seeks to become the unaccountable global arbiter – positioning itself above and beyond the nation state as a supranational enforcement arm of a globalist bureaucracy empowered to persecute American servicemen and officials at will," the U.S. State Department statement said. "No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans."

"The campaign will feature a wide range of actions intended to ensure that the International Criminal Court is incapable of threatening U.S. sovereignty or targeting Americans," the statement added.

Actions under consideration, the statement says, include:

• Diplomatic calls from the Secretary of State, Deputy Secretary, ambassadors, and other members of senior leadership to foreign nations highlighting the abuses of the ICC and the risks posed to Americans and other nations urging them to withdraw from the ICC
• Nations that partner with American law enforcement and the U.S. military or that enjoy the benefits of the U.S. security umbrella are called upon to reject the ICC's purported authority to prosecute American officials and servicemen
• Increased scrutiny of nations that refuse to reject the ICC's false authority while relying on U.S. assistance
• Diplomatic calls urging other nations that, like America, that are not party to the Rome Statute to leverage their diplomatic networks to take similar actions alongside us
• Visa revocations and travel bans for ICC personnel
• Increased sanctions against the ICC and affiliated organizations

The International Criminal Court's main purpose is to try individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression.

It issued the arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu on 24 November 2024, alleging he was responsible for 'the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024."

"If the U.S. turns against the court in its entirety, it's really distancing itself from principles that our most important allies hold dear," Alex Whiting, a Harvard law professor who previously worked as an ICC. prosecutor, was quoted as saying by The New York Times on Monday.