The “supreme leader” of the Iranian terror state, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, demanded the International Criminal Court (ICC) command the execution of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in remarks on Monday.
Khamenei was responding to the ICC issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and Israeli former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant last week, responding to a request from prosecutor Karim Khan made in May. The court announced charges against the Israeli leaders for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s ongoing self-defense operations in Gaza against the Iran-backed genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. The ICC also issued a warrant for the head of the Hamas “military” wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif.
Khan had initially requested warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, as well, but both were confirmed dead before the ICC decided on their cases. The Israeli government confirmed Deif’s death in August, but the ICC prosecutor’s office told the judges they could not confirm the claim, so the judges issued the warrant.
Israel declared war on Hamas on October 8, 2023, after the jihadists invaded the country and conducted an unprecedented slaughter of civilians, including entire families killed in their homes, that left an estimated 1,200 dead. Hamas terrorists also abducted over 200 people and extensively tortured, raped, and abused random people within Israeli territory. Iran celebrated the massacre by organizing street parties and fireworks displays in response to the news of the mass killing by its proxy.
The ICC claims that Israeli operations in Gaza to prevent a repeat of October 7 constitute war crimes and potential genocide. The Israeli government vehemently rejected the accusations, calling issuing the warrants an “antisemitic” action.
Khamenei, speaking at an event on Monday, also appeared disappointed in the warrants – because they would not result in Netanyahu’s death.
“The (ICC) arrest warrant is not enough, Netanyahu’s death sentence must be ordered,” Khamenei declared, according to the Iranian state propaganda outlet PressTV.
The dissident outlet Iran International explained that this demand is not compatible with the objectives and powers of the ICC.
“Khamenei’s demand comes as international legal bodies, including the ICC, stand firmly opposed to capital punishment,” it noted. “Khamenei’s demand comes as international legal bodies, including the ICC, stand firmly opposed to capital punishment.”
The ICC was created through the Rome Statute, an international legal document, and thus has no enforcement authority in countries that are not signatories to the statute. It does not have its own enforcement mechanism and cannot legally kill people. Even countries that have signed onto the Rome Statute may not necessarily follow ICC directives. Argentina, for example, announced last week that it would not enforce any warrant against Israeli officials.
“Israel faces a brutal aggression, an inhuman seizure of hostages, and the indiscriminate launch of attacks against its population,” Argentine President Javier Milei said in a statement. “Criminalizing the legitimate defense of a nation while these atrocities are omitted is an act that distorts the spirit of international justice.”
In contrast, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, an ardent leftist, told reporters shortly after the ICC issued the warrant that he would enforce it if Netanyahu visited his country.
“We will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts. This is just who we are as Canadians,” he said.
The Iranian Tasnim news agency quoted Khamenei as declaring that “The stupid Zionists imagine that by bombarding people’s homes, hospitals, and places where people are gathered, they’re the victors. No, no one in the world considers that to be a victory.” Opponents to the existence of Israel often claim that the IDF is indiscriminately attacking Gaza, omitting that Hamas has installed terrorist infrastructure pervasively in civilian areas, using sites such as hospitals and children’s bedrooms to hide tunnels, weapons, and terrorists.
Khamenei was speaking at an event to honor the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force that Iran uses to terrorize Iranians who dissent from the regime or are suspected to oppose the continuation of its decades-long rule.
“They are armed, ideologically brainwashed, and easily mobilized,” an anonymous Iranian student explained to Time magazine in a 2022 profile of the organization “The Basij is one of the mightiest and most sophisticated creations of the Islamic regime.”
The Basij are a wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and a formal wing of the Iranian military. The IRGC are a critical organizing entity for Iran’s “resistance front,” its network of jihadist terror proxies throughout the Middle East that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the network of terrorists known as the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”
Elsewhere in his remarks on Monday, Khamenei “underscored that the expansion of the resistance front is an absolute and inviolable necessity,” according to Tasnim, to continue terrorizing the Israeli people.