paris
\nProvisions for immunity from prosecution at the International Criminal Court apply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French foreign ministry said Wednesday.
\nIn a statement, the ministry reaffirmed its commitment to international justice after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, but also said that the Israeli leader was covered by immunity rules that apply to states which are not a party to the ICC. Israeli is not an ICC member.
\n\u201cA state cannot be held to act in a way that is incompatible with its obligations in terms of international law with regards to immunities granted to states which are not party to the ICC,\u201d the French statement said.
\n\u201cSuch immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other ministers in question, and must be taken into consideration should the ICC ask us to arrest them and hand them over,\u201d it said.
\nEarlier Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot had already said that France considered that some leaders could enjoy immunity from ICC prosecution.
\nAsked if France would arrest Netanyahu if he stepped on French territory, Jean-Noel Barrot did not give a specific answer in an interview with Franceinfo radio.
\nHe said France \u201cis very committed to international justice and will apply international law based on its obligations to cooperate with the ICC.\u201d
\nBut he added that the court\u2019s statute \u201cdeals with questions of immunity for certain leaders\u201d. \u201cIt is ultimately up to the judicial authorities to decide,\u201d he added.
\nThe ICC this month issued warrants for Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif. Netanyahu has slammed the move. The EU\u2019s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said the arrest warrants are \u201cbinding\u201d and should be implemented. However unlike some European states, France has so far taken a more cautious stance on the warrants.
\nBarrot\u2019s comments marked the first time a top French official has evoked a possible immunity.
\nUnconfirmed media reports have said that Netanyahu angrily raised the issue in telephone talks with President Emmanuel Macron and urged Paris not to enforce the decision.
\nFrance has been instrumental in efforts to end fighting in the Middle East and, with the United States, helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that came into force Wednesday.
\nArticle 27 of the Rome Statute \u2013 the foundation of the ICC \u2013 states that immunity \u201cshall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.\u201d
\nBut article 98 says a state cannot \u201cact inconsistently with its obligations under international law with respect to the\u2026 diplomatic immunity of a person.\u201d
\nBarrot meanwhile hailed the ceasefire as a major success for France and expressed hope it would result in the \u201creform\u201d of Lebanon after years of crisis.
\nThe ceasefire foresees \u201cthat the Israeli army withdraws from southern Lebanon during these 60 days and that it is replaced by a massive deployment of the Lebanese armed forces.
\n\u201cAnd in this context, France will play its full part,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
paris Provisions for immunity from prosecution at the International Criminal Court apply to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the French foreign ministry said Wednesday. In a statement, the ministry reaffirmed its commitment to international justice after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, but also said that the Israeli leader was covered by immunity …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":63528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73430","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\/73430","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=73430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73448,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73430\/revisions\/73448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}