Senate Democrats have blocked a bill imposing sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Democratic senators have backed the blocking of the Republican bill that aimed to impose sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The legislation was intended to penalize the Court for issuing arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials.
This was reported by RBK-Ukraine citing CNN.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune criticized the court's decision prior to the vote, stating that establishing a "moral equivalence" between Israeli leaders and Hamas "goes beyond what is permissible."
Understanding that Republicans would interpret their votes against the bill as anti-Israel, Democrats spent several days figuring out how to address this issue.
Ultimately, the only Democrat who supported the bill was Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania. As a result, the measure fell short of the 60 votes needed for further approval, with a final voting outcome of 54-45.
"I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to vote for this and support Israel," said Fetterman, who firmly stands on pro-Israel positions.
Two freshman Democratic senators, Elissa Slotkin from Michigan and Ruben Gallego from Arizona, who had supported the bill last year while in the House of Representatives, also voted against it.
Democrat John Ossoff, who is running for re-election in Georgia, did not cast a vote.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and running for re-election in New Hampshire, had been negotiating with Republicans in an attempt to find a compromise on the bill. However, shortly before the vote, negotiations fell through, and Shaheen along with other Democrats involved in the talks announced they would vote "no."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke on the floor just minutes before the vote, stating that the bill was "poorly crafted and highly problematic." He complained that Republicans refused to make minor adjustments to the document to secure Democratic support.
The ICC's focus on Netanyahu drew backlash from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress. A similar bill was passed by the House of Representatives earlier in January with a vote of 243-140, where 45 Democrats voted alongside Republicans.
In the last session of Congress, the House passed the ICC sanctions bill with a vote of 247 to 55, with 42 Democrats joining Republicans. However, the measure was not brought to a vote in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats.
Now that Republicans control both the House and the Senate, they have returned to this issue.
ICC Decision and the Risk of US Sanctions
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a senior Hamas official.
The ICC judges accused the individuals listed of "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during and after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The office of the Israeli Prime Minister dismissed the warrants as "absurd and anti-Semitic."
The White House principally rejected the ICC's issuance of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
In the Senate, threats of sanctions were made against countries that assist the Court in executing the arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister.