THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch officials are preparing for the United States to impose a tough new round of sanctions on the International Criminal Court as it seeks to dismantle the global tribunal over what the Trump administration sees as overstepping its authority.
Officials in the court's host country, the Netherlands, have been notified that the sanctions are imminent and are looking at ways to help the tribunal keep operating, including paying staff, protecting witnesses and maintaining the detention facility, diplomatic and government officials with knowledge of the briefings told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Washington has already sanctioned more than a dozen current and former staff members, including half of the court’s sitting judges, in what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described as a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court.”
The U.S. and Israel have strongly objected to the court's arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over the war in Gaza. The U.S. also has opposed investigations into its military actions in Afghanistan.
Like Russia, China, India and Israel, the United States is among countries that have never joined the panel, with Washington citing fears of politically motivated prosecutions of its military. The court currently has 125 member states.
The sanctions could prevent the court from accessing financial and IT services, and even paying its U.S. employees. When the court’s former chief prosecutor was sanctioned in 2025, he lost access to his Microsoft email, his bank accounts were frozen and he was barred from entering the United States.
According to two sources familiar with the situation, U.S. officials warned their Dutch counterparts that sanctions would be levied as early as Monday and encouraged the court’s host state to withdraw from the institution.
Two U.S. officials told the AP that more ICC sanctions may be coming, but stressed that the scale and scope of the penalties had not yet been finalized and that no announcement is expected this week. The officials were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The ICC was established in The Hague in 2002 as the court of last resort to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s most heinous atrocities: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. It takes on cases when nations are unable or unwilling to prosecute crimes on their territory.
U.S. officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment. “The Trump Administration has been clear: the International Criminal Court is a corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court that has maliciously abused its authority and exceeded its mandate,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement when announcing sanctions on the court president last month. “We will not tolerate its assault on state sovereignty.”
The ICC has been preparing for months for the possibility of sanctions. Earlier this year, the court migrated off Microsoft products onto a German software provider, according to three ICC staff members who were not authorized to speak on the record. The tribunal has also changed insurance and other financial providers to companies without a footprint in the United States, they said.
Dutch and court officials are hoping for a six-month grace period before the sanctions come into effect, arguing that the institution needs time to sever itself from American companies, which could face huge financial penalties if they are found to be in violation.
Beyond migrating to European-based alternatives, the Netherlands and the European Union have few options to protect the institution.
The EU “blocking statute” can be used to protect European court staff by preventing European companies from complying with the U.S. measures, though it’s unclear whether the statute would shield the ICC itself, because it’s an international body, not a European one. EU citizens are entitled to a basic bank account, but that doesn’t provide access to credit cards or U.S. payment facilities.
A small but growing number of the global tribunal’s member states have announced plans to leave the institution in recent months, including Venezuela and Chad.
Chad specifically cited the United States in its decision to withdraw. Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Sabre Fadoul said in a statement that during a phone call with a U.S. official in July, “the American side expressed its concerns regarding the functioning of this institution and requested that Chad reconsider” its membership.
Associated Press journalists Lorne Cook in Brussels and Matt Lee in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - A general view of the exterior of the International Criminal Court is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded for “a world built on interdependence” as he made his final address Tuesday to a yearly gathering of world leaders convening to face a formidable menu of challenges — from climate change and war to inequality and artificial intelligence.
The U.N. leader has long implored leaders not to give up on cooperation and shared decision-making in the face of accelerating global challenges and increasing great-powers competition. Tuesday’s message at the U.N. General Assembly took on additional urgency because he leaves office at the end of this year.
“The fault lines in our world are widening,” he said, citing raging wars, risingtemperatures and artificial intelligence, among other matters. Instead of letting the future continue to veer toward fragmentation, transactionalism and mistrust, he called for “a world built on interdependence – and sustained by a dense web of economic, political, social and technological connections.”
His speech opened the main portion of the world's biggest diplomatic meeting of the year. Leaders from the U.N.'s 193 member countries address each other and the international community and air their hopes, plans and grievances.
Guterres also rebuked might-makes-right thinking, telling superpowers to recognize “that their power isn’t so super.” Recent years have made it clear that “military power alone cannot secure peace,” he said.
Yet about an hour after Guterres spoke, U.S. President Donald Trump offered a different and equally frank view of power.
“While others have promised strength, I have used it to make America the most powerful country in the world,” Trump said, touting his country's economic and military footprint.
The annual high-level gathering at the U.N. General Assembly will be consumed with wars in Iran, Gaza, Ukraine,Sudan, Congo and Myanmar and a persisting question: Can the leaders do anything to end them?
And what can they do about the relentless rise of global warming threatening the future of the planet, the growing inequalities within and among nations, and shocks to the global economy as blocked shipping routes and supply chains increase the cost of living and slow growth?
The future of the United Nations will also be on the agenda. At 81, its powers are still the victorious nations from World War II, not the 21st century’s major global players. Member nations have agreed to a wide-ranging reform package that includes updating key institutions such as the powerful U.N. Security Council, where the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France hold inordinate sway because of their veto power. Reform, however, is easier said than implemented.
Behind the scenes, there will be speculation about who will lead the United Nations next. Guterres’ second five-year term ends Dec. 31 and no clear successor has emerged.
Guterres closed his speech by acknowledging the forthcoming departure and vowing to “never, ever give up” on the values for which the U.N. stands.
“Wherever I will be, whatever I will be doing, I will keep championing the conviction that peace is possible,” he said, before leaving the rostrum amid a sustained, standing ovation. He put his hand on his heart.
There is still no question that the U.N. remains the key gathering place for its member nations and their leaders. Some 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the General Assembly, along with dozens of ministers.
Among the headliners: Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, who also is set to speak Tuesday. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian speak Wednesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — whom New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani wanted arrested for his treatment of Palestinians in Gaza until he learned he has no such authority — will address the assembly on Thursday. For a second year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won’t be coming to the U.N. because the U.S. has refused to give him a visa. He will nonetheless address the assembly by video the same day.
The United States, under its agreement with the U.N. to host the organization, is required to allow diplomats from all member nations to attend meetings.
Equally telling is who else isn’t coming. China’s President Xi Jinping is meeting Trump in Washington on Wednesday, yet he is skipping — some diplomats say snubbing — the U.N. gathering and sending a vice president instead. Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t coming either, and Indian President Narendra Modi has backed out.
France's U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, said ahead of the gathering that it is “extremely critical” for world leaders to support the U.N. as the place where the world’s nations meet — especially at a time of such polarization.
“We believe in multilateralism," he said, "and we believe that the high-level week is the occasion for countries in the world to reaffirm that they prefer cooperation and dialogue to confrontation.”
There is no doubt it’s been a tough year for the world body. It has been pushed to the sidelines when it comes to its key responsibility of ensuring international peace and security and trying to end major conflicts in the Mideast and Ukraine. The U.S. failure to pay billions of dollars in outstanding arrears has left the organization’s finances in rocky shape.
“While the world still trusts the U.N., the global public is eager for change," said former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch-Brown, a United Nations Foundation board member.
The future of artificial intelligence has pushed to the forefront of global concerns, with its speeding advances and the dawning recognition that there are no industry controls, let alone any global guardrails for a technology that has many advantages but also many disadvantages and unknowns.
Days before the global gathering, leaders of three major AI companies warned about the technology getting out of human control and called for a pause, but Trump dismissed their concerns as “a hoax,” and urged continued advances to keep the U.S. ahead of China.
The U.N. Security Council added a high-level meeting on AI to its agenda on Wednesday afternoon, a sign of the growing apprehension and need to address the issue. It was already slated to hold a high-level meeting on Ukraine with Zelenskyy on Wednesday morning.
Edith M. Lederer has covered international affairs for The Associated Press for more than a half century.
United States President Donald Trump speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
United States President Donald Trump speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
President Donald Trump speaks to the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks to the United Nations General Assembly, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, at the UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attends the Partnership for Multilateralism Summit on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
The flag of the United Nations flies during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
People pose as they arrive for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters, Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/David R Martin)
