Rubio Sanctions the ICC Itself on Nobel Day, and Europe Is Left Counting Its Options

On Friday 9 October, hours after former International Criminal Court judge Navi Pillay won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on the court as an institution. In a video address on social media, as NBC News reported, Rubio said: “We will ban transactions with this rogue court.”

The ICC called the move an assault on the rule of law. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office welcomed it and attacked Pillay. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the European Commission and eight foreign ministers objected. The measures carry a six-month delay.

The sanctions target the court, not only named officials, and give US companies six months to wind down their business with it. Washington has told its allies to join, and Rubio has said the campaign continues “piece by piece.” Europe has answered with words and an offer: the Commission says it is ready to act, and the Dutch foreign minister has already named the legal tool he considers the strongest. Netanyahu’s government applauded openly.

Rubio spoke after the Nobel announcement. In the same address he said: “The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC.” NBC reported that US firms and individuals have six months to end their dealings with the court, and that the measures cut it off from US financial services, technology companies and dollars. Rubio told allies to join the effort. If they did not, he said, the campaign would go on “piece by piece, until Americans are threatened no longer.”

The court answered the same day. In a statement quoted by the Times of Israel, it called the sanctions “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order.” It added: “history will judge this moment.” The statement closed with a line aimed at its own member states: “Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it.” ICC President Tomoko Akane said the court would “continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality.”

Netanyahu’s office posted on X, in a message the Times of Israel carried: “The ICC is not a court. It is a political body that poses a mortal threat to law abiding democracies worldwide.” The court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. A separate post, also reported by the Times of Israel, said: “The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass.” It called Pillay “a bigot.” Pillay chaired the UN commission of inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Israel rejects that finding.

Guterres had congratulated Pillay in the morning. In a statement from his office he wrote that “the force of law must prevail over the law of force.” Later, through spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, he called the sanctions “a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice” and said he was “deeply alarmed by the expected impact,” according to The New Arab.

The European Commission called the sanctions “deeply regrettable,” in the same report. It said it was “ready to take any necessary measures to enable the court to carry out its work.” It also noted the six-month delay and said there was “room for dialogue.”

Eight foreign ministers, from Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, issued a joint statement. They “reaffirm our continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the ICC” and “strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States.” The statement points to the Assembly of States Parties in December 2026. Tom Berendsen, the Dutch foreign minister, called the EU blocking statute the “nuclear option,” NBC reported. Erika Guevara Rosas of Amnesty International said: “This existential attack must fail.”

The Nobel committee honoured a former ICC judge in the morning. The sanctions followed the same day. Netanyahu’s office condemned the first and welcomed the second within hours.

In August Rubio sanctioned Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye. Guterres’s spokesman said the Secretary-General had “serious concern” about the designation, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the measure on a Japanese national “deeply regrettable,” Jiji Press reported. Japanese lawmakers then criticised that response as weak, and she answered that it was “not weak.” Japan now signs a joint statement that says it “strongly” disagrees.

In August the UN spoke of “serious concern” about a designation of individuals. In October Guterres speaks of a “serious blow” and says he is “deeply alarmed.”

The Commission’s “ready to take any necessary measures” sits beside its own remark that there is “room for dialogue.” Berendsen’s “nuclear option” sits beside a six-month clock. The court’s own statement says its fate rests with its member states. Rubio’s demand is that those same states join him. The December Assembly of States Parties is the first scheduled meeting where those two requests meet.

The first marker is whether the Commission proposes adding the US order to the EU blocking statute, which would forbid European companies from complying with it. The Netherlands, which hosts the court, has discussed a quick enactment with the Commission, according to NBC. The second is how Washington applies the wind-down to the court’s staff and operations. The third is the December Assembly of States Parties. The six months end in April 2027.