Trump breaks silence on New York mayor’s move to arrest Netanyahu in the US

United States President Donald Trump has declared that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not face arrest during any visit to the United States, following remarks by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani suggesting the city was still weighing such a possibility.

“Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested, in any way, shape, or form, while ​in the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a social media post ⁠that did not refer to the mayor’s comments.

The statement comes after the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024 over alleged war crimes committed during the Gaza war. Israel has rejected the court’s jurisdiction and denied the allegations.

Although Trump did not mention Mamdani by name in his Truth Social post, he praised Israel for its role in the conflict involving Iran.

Mamdani had said in an interview aired on Saturday that New York City’s legal department was examining what legal options, if any, were available regarding the ICC warrant.

“I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague. He’s ​a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court,” Mamdani told a New York Times video ‌podcast ⁠called “The Interview.”

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Netanyahu is expected to travel to New York in September for the annual United Nations General Assembly, where world leaders gather each year.

Israel pushed back against Mamdani’s remarks on Sunday, describing the ICC as a “kangaroo court” in a post on X and dismissing the arrest warrant against Netanyahu as “bogus.”

“Mamdani appears interested in ​diverting public attention from ⁠his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East,” it said.

The ICC, established in 2002, has jurisdiction to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, neither the United States nor Israel is a member of the court.

(Reuters)