The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), vowing to cripple the tribunal's operations just hours after the Nobel Peace Prize went to a former ICC judge who warned of mounting political attacks on the court.
The ICC hit back at the sanctions, calling them an attack on international law and warning that "history will judge this moment".
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on Friday, hours after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African prosecutor Navi Pillay, , who headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal, also presided over a UN commission that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Pillay had also led investigations into potential ICC charges against US troops for war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In a video message posted to social media, Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with what he called a "rogue court", escalating a long-running campaign by US President Donald Trump's administration against the Hague-based tribunal.
"We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate against us," Rubio said.
"The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC," he added.
Rubio said both Republicans and Democrats had deep reservations about the court, which was established to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity that might not otherwise be addressed by the parties involved. He said, however, that only Trump was willing to act against the court.
“Both parties agree on this, but only President Trump has the resolve to take the action needed to end this threat once and for all," he said, adding: "Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC."
Rubio said the US expected its allies to join the campaign against the ICC. These include several NATO members in Europe and Japan.
"We expect our allies, many of whom are part of the ICC and that rely on American service members for their defense, to rein in this rogue court,” the US Secretary of State said.
"If they do not, the United States will continue its campaign to dismantle the ICC, piece by piece, until Americans are threatened no longer," he said.
In its statement, the ICC said the measures were aimed at intimidating its staff and disrupting its activities, but vowed not to be deterred.
The sanctions were "an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law", the court said.
"The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes," ICC President Tomoko Akane said in the statement.
The court called on its 125 member states to support the institution, saying: "Its fate now rests also in the hands of the states that created it."
"Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack," the court said.
The sanctions block any assets the ICC may hold in US jurisdictions and give US companies and individuals six months to wind down any business dealings with the court.
(With inputs from AP and AFP)