The Trump administration has rolled out successive waves of sanctions against the court, including new institutional sanctions designed to cripple the ICC by cutting it off from financial and support services.<\/p>\n
The latest sanctions will freeze the court’s assets<\/a> in the US, as well as block financial transactions and IT agreements the ICC has with US companies.<\/p>\n Time to step up<\/p>\n Ms Khan told the ABC that while the sanctions had already created some difficulties, the ICC was heartened that many countries had lent support \u2014 some in public and others via “quiet diplomacy behind closed doors”.<\/p>\n Nazhat Shameem Khan says countries need to work to protect the ICC. (Supplied: ICC)<\/p>\n “I think this is the time when states must step up and support this process [of multilateralism] and support the institutions which are under attack,” Ms Khan said.<\/p>\n The deputy prosecutor said the court was determined to protect its staff from the financial impacts of the move, and was adopting new systems to circumvent the sanctions and allow it to keep running.<\/p>\n “We have been working very hard to insulate the court as well as ensuring that our work continues,” she said.<\/p>\n “Our main priority is that we continue to serve the victims who come to the court, telling us their stories and wanting their voices to be heard.”<\/p>\n The ICC drew furious condemnation from the US and Israel when it announced it would pursue Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n More recently it unsealed arrest warrants for several major Taliban leaders in Afghanistan for their policies persecuting women and girls.<\/p>\n Marco Rubio has been highly critical of the ICC. (Reuters: Eric Lee, file photo)<\/p>\n Sanctions effect hard to predict<\/p>\n The latest wave of sanctions announced by the Trump administration on October 9 is meant to target the ICC rather than the large cohort of lawyers and staff who work for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The measures include a 180-day grace period before they are fully implemented.<\/p>\n But Ms Khan said the impact of sanctions was unpredictable and the court could not know at this stage how many of its staff might struggle with banking or other services as a result.<\/p>\n “We don’t know which institutions will over-comply,” she said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/e344dcfe3cc40fdb4e43c5de2fef30a5.jpeg\")
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