Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed full blocking sanctions on the ICC Friday as a former court judge tied to a U.N. finding against Israel won the Nobel Peace Prize.
In a video message, Rubio said the United States would ban transactions with the Hague-based International Criminal Court, seize its property and interests in the United States or held by U.S. persons, and cut off resources that let the court operate against America and its allies.
The Hill reported the move landed the same day former ICC judge Navi Pillay received the Nobel Peace Prize for work expanding international law. Pillay recently oversaw a United Nations report that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
Rubio framed the sanctions as a direct defense of U.S. sovereignty. The United States is not a member of the court and has long rejected its claims of jurisdiction over American service members, Israeli leaders, and the Trump administration.
He put the case in plain terms.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said:
"We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us,"
Rubio added:
"Because our message is clear: the United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC."
The new action is full blocking sanctions. That means Americans and U.S. businesses face penalties for transactions with the ICC that involve banking, technology transfers, commercial services, or professional engagement.
The Treasury Department issued a six-month general license, described as a 180-day window, so people and entities can wind down existing dealings. The license also covers certain maintenance of operations, IT-related work including cloud and software services, activity tied to the ICC pension plan, and limited activity related to ICC detainees.
Rubio tied the step to a longer campaign. In July he proclaimed he would dismantle the Hague-based court “brick by brick” through sanctions, visa bans, and pressure on countries to leave the Rome Statute. In August the Trump administration sanctioned ICC President Tomoko Akane. The administration has already blacklisted more than a dozen people and non-governmental organizations linked to the court. Those earlier sanctions are being challenged in U.S. courts.
The legal foundation sits in a February 2025 executive order from President Trump. That order permitted sanctions on the court and accused it of “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
Rubio left little room for half-measures.
He said:
"Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,"
He also called on allies, many of them ICC members that still rely on American service members for their defense, to rein in the court and follow America’s lead.
The timing sharpened the political contrast. Pillay, a former ICC judge, was honored for contributions that enlarged the scope and impact of international law. The same reporting notes she recently oversaw the U.N. report that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
That finding sits at the center of the dispute Rubio is pressing. The Trump administration has argued the court has pursued war-crimes cases against Israel and has threatened American personnel and the administration itself. The ICC earlier issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Former President Biden called that warrant “outrageous,” even after his administration had removed Trump-era sanctions against the court.
The court later deprioritized scrutiny of American service members in Afghanistan. Rubio’s sanctions package treats that history as unfinished business rather than a settled retreat.
Pressure is producing exits. At least five countries have left the ICC since the United States issued its demands: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Venezuela. Venezuela announced its decision in July after coming under effective U.S. control following the seizure of Nicolás Maduro, whom the reporting describes as Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.
Rubio presented those withdrawals as evidence that the court’s claim to global authority is fraying. He cast “globalist experts an ocean away” as seeking more power at the expense of American sovereignty.
ICC President Tomoko Akane, already under U.S. sanctions from August, said the court would not stop.
Akane said:
"The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes,"
The court called the U.S. action an unprecedented attack and said it was working “to ensure the continuity and resilience of its activities.” In a further statement the ICC said:
"No one should be punished for serving the cause of justice. History will judge this moment,"
It continued that future generations, and victims of mass atrocities, would ask whether the court held firm and whether the international community defended the principles it proclaimed or allowed them to be abandoned under pressure.
Rubio’s answer is already on the record. The United States will not accept jurisdiction it never granted, will not leave American troops or Israeli partners exposed to what he calls a rogue process, and will use the full sanctions tool kit until the threats stop.
A court America never joined does not get to revise American sovereignty, and Friday’s sanctions made that limit impossible to miss.
