According to LRT, US officials have conveyed to Lithuania that the ICC issue is particularly relevant for countries hosting American troops, although they did not directly threaten to withdraw troops if Lithuania remains a member of the court.
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American officials express concern over the arrest warrant issued by this court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. American officials question how countries that have signed the Rome Statute and host American troops will comply with the obligations of the host country.
On the other hand, the broadcaster reports that Lithuania, according to sources, has not received a direct American request to withdraw from this court.
According to analysts interviewed by LRT, the United States has troops deployed in more than a hundred countries, and with changing world politics, there is a risk that deployed troops will face legal prosecution. However, there is doubt whether America would withdraw troops if Lithuania does not withdraw from the Rome Statute.
BNS reported that the United States has for some time been campaigning against the ICC and urging allies to withdraw from its jurisdiction.
The diplomatic and political pressure initiated in mid-July against the Hague court is based by America on the latter’s “unjustified threat to US sovereignty.”
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal that he finds it hard to imagine a world where “US soldiers, police officers, border patrol agents, and elected leaders could be dragged before an international court, tried by judges from random countries around the world, and imprisoned thousands of miles from America.”
Relations between the US and the court based in The Hague have been strained since the first term of US President Donald Trump, and some ICC judges are already subject to US sanctions.
Washington is angered by the fact that the Hague court, although effectively frozen, has not formally closed investigations into alleged torture and war crimes by US soldiers and the CIA in Afghanistan and secret prisons in Europe.
Established in 2002, the ICC is responsible for prosecuting perpetrators of the world’s most serious crimes when states lack the will or ability to do so themselves.
Lithuania joined the Rome Statute in 2003; currently, 125 countries worldwide have ratified the Rome Statute.
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