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Orban Invites Netanyahu to Hungary as ICC Warrant Divides Europeans
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban looks on as he gives a statement next to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (not pictured) in Budapest, Hungary, Nov. 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
Prime Minister Viktor Orban invited Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to visit Hungary but several other European nations said the Israeli premier would be detained if he set foot on their soil, following the issuing of an arrest warrant for him.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and for a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu and Gallant, adamantly rejected the allegations as false, saying the ICC’s actions were politically motivated.
All European Union (EU) countries are members of the court, which means they are supposed to enforce its warrants.
But the diverging reactions — and the fact that EU heavyweights Germany and France have not said if they would arrest Netanyahu — highlight the major diplomatic and political challenge posed by the ICC decision, which drew swift condemnation from Israeli leaders and the White House.
“For us Europeans, this warrant exposes a real dilemma between international law, which is our law, and our foreign policy, especially for those member states that are unconditionally backing Israel,” Eurointelligence analysts wrote in a note.
Assuring Netanyahu that he would face no risks if he visited Hungary, Orban branded the arrest warrants a “brazen, cynical, and completely unacceptable decision.” Orban, who is often at odds with his EU peers, has forged warm ties with Netanyahu.
“Today I will invite Israel’s prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, for a visit to Hungary and in that invite I will guarantee him that if he comes, the ICC ruling will have no effect in Hungary, and we will not follow its contents,” Orban said.
The ICC, which does not have its own police force to carry out arrests, has only limited diplomatic means to force countries to act if they do not want to.
The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Slovenia ,and Ireland are among EU states that have said they would meet their ICC commitments.
Netanyahu will be arrested if he set foot in Ireland, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris told RTE radio. “Yes absolutely. We support international courts and we apply their warrants,” Harris said.
Cyprus, which has close ties to Israel, regards the warrants as binding in principle, a government source told Reuters.
GERMANY TORN
But Berlin declined to spell out what it would do until and unless Netanyahu planned to travel to Germany, adding that legal questions had to be clarified regarding the warrant.
Germany “is one of the biggest supporters of the ICC — this attitude is also the result of German history,” a government spokesperson said.
“At the same time, it is a consequence of German history that we share unique relations and a great responsibility with Israel,” the spokesperson added, alluding to the Nazi era.
German officials said they will carefully examine the warrants and how to deal with them.
“I find it hard to imagine that we would make arrests on this basis,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit on Friday, pointing out that legal questions had to be clarified regarding the warrant.
France was also non-committal, toning down its initial reaction, which had been to say that its response would align with ICC statutes.
“France takes note of this decision. True to its long-standing commitment to supporting international justice, it reiterates its attachment to the independent work of the Court, in accordance with the Rome Statute,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said in a statement.
Paris said on Friday the ICC decision was not a ruling but a “formalization of an accusation.”
France has been working on Lebanon ceasefire efforts and officials said cornering Netanyahu now could scupper those efforts.
Non-EU Britain — also an ICC member — was similarly circumspect in its response.
In the Netherlands, far-right leader Geert Wilders said he would meet his “friend” Netanyahu in Israel soon, even though the Dutch government has said it will act on the ICC‘s arrest warrant if the Israeli leader were to visit the country.
Wilders is the leader of the largest Dutch government party, but is not himself a cabinet member.
The Czech Republic, which like neighboring Hungary has traditionally sided with Israel, appeared similarly conflicted.
The Czech foreign ministry said Prague would respect its international legal obligations, while Prime Minister Petr Fiala described the ICC decision as “unfortunate” and said it would undermine the court’s authority.
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which rules Gaza, launched the ongoing war in the Middle East with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. During the onslaught, the terrorists murdered 1,200 people, wounded thousands more, and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating mass sexual violence against the Israeli people.
Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
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Russian Missile Strike Kills 32 in Ukraine’s Sumy, Kyiv Says
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine June 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Two Russian ballistic missiles slammed into the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, killing 32 people and wounding more than 80 in the deadliest strike on Ukraine this year, the Kyiv government said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded a tough international response against Moscow over the attack, which came with US President Donald Trump‘s push to rapidly end the war struggling to make a breakthrough.
Dead bodies were strewn on the ground in the middle of a city street near a destroyed bus and burnt-out cars in a video posted by Zelensky on social media.
“Only scoundrels can act like this. Taking the lives of ordinary people,” he said, noting that the attack had come on Palm Sunday when some people were going to church.
Russian authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
It followed a missile strike in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown and far from the ground war’s front lines in the east and south, earlier this month that killed 20 people, including nine children.
Sumy, with a population of around a quarter of a million and located just over 25 km (15 miles) from the Russian border, became a garrison city when Kyiv’s forces launched an incursion into Russia last August that has since been largely repelled.
The people who were caught in Sunday’s strike were out on the street or inside cars, public transport and buildings when the missiles hit, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
“Deliberate destruction of civilians on an important church feast day,” he wrote.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, said the missiles contained cluster munitions. “The Russians are doing this to kill as many civilians as possible,” he said.
Maryana Bezuhla, an outspoken Ukrainian lawmaker known for her sharp public criticism of military commanders, suggested on the Telegram app that the attack had taken place due to information about a gathering of soldiers leaking out.
Reuters was not able to verify that information.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently holds nearly 20% of the neighboring country’s territory in the east and south. Russian forces have been slowly advancing in the east.
‘SO-CALLED DIPLOMACY’
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv was “sharing detailed information about this war crime with all of our partners and international institutions.”
The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which Ukraine officially joined this year, is conducting investigations into high-profile cases of alleged war crimes in the conflict.
Andriy Kovalenko, a security official who runs Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, noted that the strike came after a visit to Russia by US envoy Steve Witkoff for talks with top officials including President Vladimir Putin.
“Russia is building all this so-called diplomacy … around strikes on civilians,” he wrote on Telegram.
Under Trump‘s administration, US officials have held separate rounds of talks with Kremlin and Kyiv officials to try to move towards a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia agreed to pause strikes on each other’s energy facilities last month, but both sides have repeatedly accused each other of breaking the moratorium.
Witkoff, Trump‘s special envoy, held talks with Putin on Friday in St. Petersburg on the search for a Ukraine peace deal. Trump told Russia to “get moving.”
In the aftermath of Sunday’s Sumy strike, Zelensky called on the United States and Europe to respond robustly to what he described as Russian terrorism.
“Russia wants exactly this kind of terror and is dragging out this war. Without pressure on the aggressor, peace is impossible. Talks have never stopped ballistic missiles and aerial bombs,” he wrote.
Russia’s defense ministry accused Ukraine on Saturday of having carried out five attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the previous day in what it called a violation of the US-brokered moratorium on such strikes.
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Families of Gaza Captives Hold Passover Meal at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square
Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Jan. 19, 2025, as three Israeli hostages were set to be released from Hamas captivity as part of a Gaza ceasefire deal. Photo: Taken by author
i24 News – Families of Gaza hostages and their supporters held a public Passover Seder at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Saturday night, amid reports of stalemate and foot dragging in the negotiations on the release of the remaining 59 hostages, over 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Ahead of the Tel Aviv event, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged Israelis to turn out to Hostages Square outside the Tel Aviv Museum.
“Bring your holiday meal with you, bring a mat or chair, come with the kids, come with friends — let’s be together,” the statement read.
“How can we sit at the Seder table and tell the story of our journey from slavery to freedom while 59 of our brothers and sisters are still held captive by Hamas?” the Forum asked.
Karina Ariev, an IDF spotter who was released in January as part of the first phase of a ceasefire-hostage deal, urged Israelis celebrating the Seder to “leave an empty chair for the hostages, and do not forget them.”
“Although I am here, my heart is still there. There are still 59 hostages waiting for their freedom holiday, waiting to be brought home,” she added. “I think about them, and I think about us because until they return, none of us can truly be free.”
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White House: Witkoff’s ‘Direct Communication’ With Iran a Step Forward to Mutually Beneficial Outcome
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Saturday’s meeting between US special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi to hash out the impasse on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program yielded “very positive and constructive” discussions, the White House said on Saturday.
“Special Envoy Witkoff underscored to Dr. Araqhchi that he had instructions from President Trump to resolve our two nations’ differences through dialogue and diplomacy, if that is possible,” the White House said in a statement.
“These issues are very complicated, and Special Envoy Witkoff’s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.”
The two sides will meet again next Saturday, it confirmed.
Speaking to Iranian state media, Araghchi described the meeting as constructive.
“Neither we nor the other side are interested in fruitless negotiations – so-called ‘talks for the sake of talks,’ wasting time, or drawn-out, exhausting negotiations,” he said. “Both sides, including the Americans, have said that their goal is also to reach an agreement in the shortest possible time. However, that will certainly not be an easy task.”
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