Sen. Cruz: 'The ICC's Campaign Against Our Troops Will Fail Because the United States Will Ensure That It Fails'
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today issued the following statement after the United Nations' International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized an investigation into United States forces in Afghanistan:
"Today's announcement by the International Criminal Court is an explicit assault on the sovereignty and security of the United States, which is not a party to the ICC and over which the ICC has no jurisdiction. It marks the end of the pretense that the ICC is a legitimate legal body bound by norms and jurisdiction, and exposes it as a political organization targeting America and our allies, including Israel, to advance the political agendas of hostile countries which themselves often lack the rule of law.
"The United States will not sit idly by while unaccountable political operatives convene kangaroo court trials in foreign countries to prosecute and persecute American soldiers and the soldiers of our allies. I will work with my colleagues and the Trump administration on measures aimed at countering this decision, including and especially through a United Nations Security Council resolution that would prohibit the ICC from prosecuting the nationals of non-member states.
"The ICC's campaign against our troops will fail because the United States will ensure that it fails, but also because it is fundamentally illegitimate. The ICC and the international community must decide between bringing the Court back in line or destroying whatever legitimacy it still claims for itself."
As the Daily Beast's Betsy Swan first reported, Sen. Cruz "is working to garner support for a resolution that would call on the UN Security Council to bar the ICC from bringing charges against people from states who aren't parties to the treaty that governs it-which would include Russia, China, the U.S., and Israel."
Earlier this week, during his discussion at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) Policy Conference 2020, Sen. Cruz announced his plans to work with the Trump administration on a solution at the United Nations that protects Americans and Israelis from unjust and politically motivated prosecutions in the ICC.
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