Bolton takes aim at Palestine Liberation Organization, ICC
US national security advisor says closure of Palestinian offices in Washington will not end prospects for achieving peace and Trump administration's Mideast plan will soon be officially unveiled; Bolton also threatens International Criminal Court and calls it 'illegitimate.'
US National Security Advisor John Bolton addressed on Monday the shutting down of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington, saying he did not believe the move would shut the door on a long-delayed Arab-Israeli peace plan that Trump administration has been developing.
He said the plan continued to be refined with an eye toward eventually proposing it.
He added that the PLO's office was being ordered closed out of concern about Palestinian attempts to prompt an ICC investigation of Israel.
The Palestinians said they were undeterred from going to the ICC. They deemed the planned PLO mission closure a new pressure tactic by a Trump administration that has slashed funding to a UN agency for Palestinian refugees and to hospitals in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as capital of a future state.
“We reiterate that the rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale, that we will not succumb to US threats and bullying,” Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said in a statement.
“Accordingly, we continue to call upon the International Criminal Court to open its immediate investigation into Israeli crimes.”
Bolton also threatened tough action against the International Criminal Court, saying the administration “will fight back” if the ICC proceeds with opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by US service members and intelligence professionals during the war in Afghanistan.
“The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,” national security advisor John Bolton told the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in his first major address since joining President Donald Trump’s White House in April.
“The ICC prosecutor has requested to investigate these Americans for alleged detainee abuse, and perhaps more - an utterly unfounded, unjustifiable investigation,” he said.
If such an inquiry goes ahead, the Trump administration will consider banning judges and prosecutors from entering the United States, put sanctions on any funds they have in the US financial system and prosecute them in American courts, Bolton said.
“We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us,” he said.
In addition, the United States may negotiate more binding, bilateral agreements to prohibit nations from surrendering Americans to The Hague-based court, Bolton said.
The court’s aim is to bring to justice the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The United States did not ratify the Rome treaty that established the ICC in 2002, with Republican President George W. Bush opposed to the court. Bush’s Democratic successor, Barack Obama, took some steps to cooperate with it.
Meanwhile, Israel welcomed the Trump administration’s move and accused the Palestinians of seeing the court as a way of sidestepping US-sponsored bilateral talks. Those contacts stalled in 2014.
“The Palestinians’ resort to the ICC and refusal to negotiate with Israel and the United States is not the way to advance peace, and it is good that the United States is taking a clear stand on this matter,” said an Israeli official who requested anonymity.
Palestinians have reacted with dismay to the US funding cuts, warning that they could lead to more poverty and anger—among factors stoking their decades of conflict with Israel.
Trump ordered last week that $25 million earmarked for the care of Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem be directed elsewhere.
“This decision will create serious cash-flow problems at the hospitals and will necessarily create delays in life-saving and other urgent treatments,” Walid Nammour, head of the network of six hospitals affected, told reporters on Monday. “Overall, the decision puts the health of 5 million Palestinians at risk.”
