{"id":52445,"date":"2026-10-11T20:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T20:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=52445"},"modified":"2026-10-11T20:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T20:01:49","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-the-us-russia-and-the-international-criminal-court-trumps-assault-on-the-rule-of-law-intensifies-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=52445","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on the US, Russia and the international criminal court: Trump\u2019s assault on the rule of law intensifies | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/p>\n

O<\/span>n Friday, Donald Trump drove home his belief that might is right and the rule of law is an obstacle rather than an essential foundation stone of international order. First came the escalated assault on the international criminal court (ICC), sanctioning the body itself. Then he announced a deal with Russia to\u00a0buy diesel.<\/p>\n

The US has long chafed at the notion of being bound\u00a0by the rule of law that it espoused publicly. That\u00a0hypocrisy now appears as a lesser vice. The president has declared that \u201cmy own morality\u201d is all that constrains him. His brazen flouting of the law, embrace of dictators and rhetorical attacks all undermine global standards.<\/p>\n

Weeks before the midterms, Mr Trump blames Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities for high diesel costs. It is his own unlawful war on Iran that has raised prices. The weekend\u2019s attacks on Riyadh\u2019s international airport, suspected as the work of Tehran-backed Houthis from Yemen, underscored that he cannot simply park that conflict when it suits him.<\/p>\n

The Moscow deal is unlikely to produce significant shipments; the Russian military runs on diesel. But Ukraine is supposed to heed its message to make life easier on Vladimir Putin. It is Mr Putin (for whom the\u00a0ICC has issued a warrant) who launched the illegal\u00a0war,\u00a0and whose troops launched lethal attacks on civilians this weekend. But in a world turned upside down, Mr\u00a0Trump blames Volodymyr Zelenskyy for failing to cut a peace deal and says the democratically\u00a0elected leader should go.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Navi Pillay.<\/span> Photograph: Davide Elias\/EPA<\/p>\n

It is similarly perverse to wield measures designed to target human rights abusers and war criminals against those who seek to defend their victims. Mr\u00a0Trump\u2019s attack on the ICC was fuelled first by its Afghanistan investigation \u2013 though it has suspended consideration of US actions there \u2013 and then the issuing of arrest warrants for Israel\u2019s Benjamin Netanyahu and its former defence minister Yoav\u00a0Gallant. The court has been preparing for these\u00a0 measures. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that companies have six months to wind down ties and that US allies must rein in the court: \u201cEither the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.\u201d<\/p>\n

In stark (and intentional) contrast, the Nobel committee on the same day announced that this year\u2019s peace laureate is Navi Pillay, a former ICC\u00a0judge and chair of the UN commission which last year concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. It was not only a recognition of\u00a0a\u00a0remarkable career that began in apartheid\u2011era South Africa, but a reminder that institutions defending universal principles are under increasing\u00a0pressure, and must be defended. \u201cPeace\u00a0requires justice,\u201d the committee said.<\/p>\n

As the ICC says, it cannot stand alone. The UK, EU and others too were right to criticise the US decision and declare their commitment to the court; invoking blocking statutes against sanctions would add heft to the rhetoric. They must show similar resolve in standing with Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The nakedness of Mr Trump\u2019s hostility to the rule of law has one benefit: no one can explain it away, or assume it is narrowly bounded. The war on Iran, kidnapping of Venezuela\u2019s president, extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean and threats over Greenland and Canada have shown\u00a0how far he will go, and overturned assumptions that allies will be safe. It is clear that the problem is not a \u201crogue court\u201d, as Mr Rubio has claimed, but a rogue superpower.<\/p>\n