Washington — The US expressed regret on Wednesday that Russia had withdrawn from the International Criminal Court (ICC) — 14 years after Washington made exactly the same decision. While Washington accuses Russian forces of brutal crimes in Syria and Ukraine, it does not accept the jurisdiction of the court over its own personnel. Like Russia, the US signed the Rome Statute of July 17 1998, but neither country ever ratified it and now both have definitively rejected its authority. Russia’s decision was seen by many as the latest step in a trend that may threaten the future of world justice, after a string of African countries pulled out from the court. "Obviously we recognise these are decisions that ultimately are sovereign national decisions to make," US State Department spokesman John Kirby said. "But that doesn’t — even though we’re not a signatory — diminish our belief that the court does provide a valuable framework." The US withdrew from the Rome Statute in May 2002, in a lett...
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