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of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all situations before it,” it said in a statement.

The United Nations yesterday called for Trump to reverse his decision to slap sanctions on the ICC.

Dozens of countries warned that Trump’s targeting of the ICC with sanctions could “increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the international rule of law.”

“Sanctions would severely undermine all situations currently under investigation as the Court may have to close its field offices,” the 79 countries - who make up about two-thirds of the court’s members - said in a statement.

Trump’s move coincided with a visit to Washington by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who - along with his former defence minister and a leader of Palestinian group Hamas - is wanted by the ICC over the offensive in the Gaza Strip.

It was unclear how quickly the US would announce names of people sanctioned. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.