NEW YORK: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is in talks over whether to try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an upcoming UN summit, he said in an interview published Saturday \u2014 prompting a sharp rebuke from Netanyahu\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,\u201d Mamdani told The New York Times. \u201cHe\u2019s a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court.\u201d<\/p>\n
The leftist Mamdani, who has called Israel an \u201capartheid regime,\u201d added: \u201cThat is an opinion that is held by many, purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani admitted he was not sure if he has the power to order the New York Police Department to detain a foreign leader but is discussing the matter with the city\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that\u2019s what we will do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The UN General Assembly, a major gathering of world leaders, takes place in September at UN headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n
Mamdani in the past has vowed to send the NYPD to enforce arrest warrants against leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court, including Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
The Hague-based ICC said in 2024 that it had reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu was responsible for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.<\/p>\n
Danny Danon, Israel\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, quickly called out Mamdani.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of focusing on his responsibilities as mayor and confronting the rising wave of antisemitism in his city, he has chosen to incite hostility and generate headlines by attacking the State of Israel,\u201d Danon wrote on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will not change a thing. Israeli Prime Minister @netanyahu will come to New York, address the United Nations General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel\u2019s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if anyone should be arrested, it is @NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani.\u201d<\/p>\n
Netanyahu has accused Mamdani of supporting Hamas, saying on a recent New York radio show: \u201cI think, secretly, he hates America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is in talks over whether to try to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an upcoming UN summit, he said in an interview published Saturday \u2014 prompting a sharp rebuke from Netanyahu\u2019s camp. \u201cI believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague,\u201d Mamdani told The New …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100495,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100481\/revisions\/100495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}