TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that a war crimes case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over aggression in Gaza was insufficient and that he deserved a “death sentence”.
In his first remarks since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu last week, Khamenei told a Tehran meeting that it was “not enough”.
The ICC’s judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant bore “criminal responsibility” for using starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally attacking civilians in the Gaza Strip.
ICC issues arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu, Gallant
“They issued an arrest warrant for him, it’s not enough,” said Khamenei, speaking to a group from the Basij paramilitary force which is linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Instead, the Iranian leader called for “Netanyahu’s death sentence” – which the ICC cannot order.
“The death sentence of these criminal leaders should be issued,” said Khamenei.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza over the past 13 months “is not a victory but a war crime”, added the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of state.
The judges of The Hague-based ICC can order prison terms of up to 30 years and under exceptional circumstances life sentences. The court cannot issue death sentences.
The pre-trial arrest warrant theoretically limits Netanyahu’s movement, as any of the court’s 124 member states would be obliged to arrest him on their territory.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged national members to act on the warrants, and for non-members – a category that includes Israel, Iran, the United States, China and others – to work together in “upholding international law”.
Tehran does not recognise Israel and is a staunch ally of Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, whose fighters have been fighting Israeli forces for months.
Khamenei told the Basij paramilitaries that Iranian forces, which have largely avoided direct involvement in the ongoing regional conflict, “will eventually destroy the Zionist regime”.
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