France Suggests It Would Not Immediately Arrest Netanyahu Despite I.C.C. Warrant

Middle East|France Suggests It Would Not Immediately Arrest Netanyahu Despite I.C.C. Warrant

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/world/middleeast/france-netanyahu-arrest-icc.html

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The Foreign Ministry did not say outright that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel would be free to travel to France, but it argued that an I.C.C. rule on immunity may apply to him.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Emmanuel Macron, with hand raised to wave, on the steps outside a building, flanked by two helmeted guards. — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, left, with President Emmanuel Macron of France in Paris in 2023.Credit…Benoit Tessier/Reuters

France’s Foreign Ministry strongly suggested on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel would not immediately be arrested if he came to French territory, despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant targeting him.

A member of the court, France has been cautious so far in its reaction to the arrest warrants issued last week for Mr. Netanyahu and his former defense minister. It did not say outright that Mr. Netanyahu would be free to travel to France, but it argued that the court’s rules on immunity applied to him and would have to be considered by French authorities.

“France will comply with its international obligations,” the ministry said in a statement. But it added that while the Rome Statute — the 1998 treaty that established the court — demands “full cooperation” with the court, it also says that a state “cannot be required to act inconsistently with its obligations under international law with respect to the immunities of states not party to the I.C.C.”

The ministry added, “Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other ministers concerned and will have to be taken into account should the I.C.C. request of us their arrest and surrender.”

The court’s warrant, which accuses Mr. Netanyahu of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, immediately confronted governments around the world with a vexing question of whether to detain the prime minister. Mr. Netanyahu is the first leader of a modern Western democracy to be accused of war crimes by the court and — unlike other leaders targeted by the court — he is a close ally of the United States and many other countries.

Some I.C.C. members, like Ireland, have taken a firm line on the arrest warrants, saying Mr. Netanyahu would be arrested on their soil. But others, like Italy, have also raised questions about the feasibility and legality of an arrest.

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