Iran condemns U.S. pro-Israel pressure campaign against ICC

TEHRAN, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Thursday condemned the threats by a group of U.S. lawmakers against the International Criminal Court (ICC) intending to prevent the tribunal from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials.

He made the remarks in a post on social media platform X while reacting to warnings by pro-Israel U.S. congressmen that any arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials would encounter U.S. retaliation.

Kanaani also slammed recent threats by a number of U.S. Republican senators against the ICC to impose sanctions should the tribunal take any such action.

The spokesman said that through "exerting pressure" on the ICC, these U.S. congressmen sought to grant Israeli officials and military commanders immunity for their "war crimes" against Palestinians, which is a "shameful and worrying" move.

He described the threats as "ugly interferences" that would set a "dangerous precedent" for contradicting the ICC's "objectives and philosophy of prosecuting and punishing war criminals."

Israel's military said on Tuesday that it had started "a precise counterterrorism operation" in Rafah city in the south of the Gaza Strip and assumed "operational control" over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, a vital point for humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

The development in Rafah is the latest escalation in the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has persisted for seven months in Gaza.