Cnn
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Hungary will withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC), its government announced on Wednesday, while the Prime Minister of the country Viktor Orban welcomed the Israeli and fugitive Prime Minister ICC Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest.
The visit of Netanyahu in Hungary the first time that the Israeli leader set up on European soil since the ICC issued an arrest warrant against him in May 2024.
The court said that it had “reasonable reasons” to believe that Netanyahu has criminal responsibility for war crimes, in particular “famine as a method of war” and “crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhuman acts”.
The ICC does not have its own powers of application of the law, it is therefore based on its Member States to make arrests and transfer suspects to The Hague. As a signatory of the law of Rome, which created the Court in 2002, Hungary is forced to arrest Netanyahu.
But instead, Netanyahu obtained a warm welcome in the Hungarian capital where he was on four days. A welcome ceremony at the courtyard of the lion of the Château d’Empant de Buda saw him descend a red carpet with Orban on Thursday, before the two leaders occurred.
Hungary is one of the strongest European allies in Israel and many Hungarians have a strong pro-Israeli feeling. The stickers and posters commemorating the victims of the terrorist attack on October 7 against Israel are a common sign through Budapest. A holocaust memorial on the shore of the Danube river, just outside the Hungarian parliament, was decorated with yellow ribbons, signaling the support of the hostages held in Gaza.
The Secretary of State of Hungary for Communication and International Relations, Zoltan Kovacs, said that the country will begin the withdrawal process on Thursday: “in accordance with the constitutional and international legal obligations of Hungary”.
If this takes place with withdrawal, Hungary will become the only country in the European Union not to be part of the ICC. Israel is not part of the court, alongside the United States, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and the former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant during the war in Gaza last May.
The Moved Marked The First Time the ICC Targeted the Top Leader of A Close Ally of the United States, Putting Netanyahu in the Company of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, for Whom the ICC Issued An Arrest Warrant Over Moscow’s War on Ukraine, and the Libyan Strong Moammar Gaddhafi was facing an arrest warrant from the icc for alleged crimes against Humanity at the time of his capture and killing in October 2011.
The United States – Under the former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump – criticized the court for issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.
Trump went so far as to take measures against the court – imposing economic and travel sanctions on people working on ICC surveys on the citizens of the United States and its allies.
At the same time, he also published mandates for three senior Hamas leaders: his chief in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, the chief of the brigades of Al Qassem, the armed wing of the Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri group, better known as Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader. All three were killed by Israel during the war.
