• Russian military again charges US with relocating ISIS from Iraq to Syria
• Surprised? US passport of ISIS leader found in Sirte Libya
• Here's how and why the US has been helping ISIS take Deir El-Zour
• VIDEO: U.S. fighting alongside ISIS, playing both sides of the conflict
• ISIS in Iraq stinks of CIA/NATO 'dirty war' op
• Truth teller? Sudan's President says CIA and Mossad 'stand behind' Isis and Boko Haram
• Analyst: The CIA is making up the number of ISIL militants

There are "reasonable grounds to believe" that the wanted persons are responsible for "war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Gaza and in Israel...Karim Khan outlined in a statement on Monday:

Benny Gantz, the centrist member of Israel's three-person war cabinet, labeled the decision by Khan to seek arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant as "a crime of historic proportions." Israel is waging "one of the just wars fought in modern history" and drawing parallels between its top officials and Hamas leaders is "a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy," he claimed in a statement.

The country's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich said that "we have not seen such a show of hypocrisy and hatred of Jews like that displayed by the court in the Hague since Nazi propaganda." Another rightist cabinet member, national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has urged the Israeli PM and defense minister to "ignore the anti-Semitic prosecutor and order a stepped-up assault against Hamas until they are completely destroyed."

Back in April, when reports of a possible arrest warrant against Netanyahu emerged, the PM blamed the ICC for seeking to "paralyze Israel's very ability to defend itself," while fanning the "fires of anti-Semitism."

Axios reported earlier this month that a group of Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives had been devising sanctions against the ICC in a bid to deter it from prosecuting the Israeli leaders. The US, Israel's major ally, is not a state party to the Rome Statute, which founded the ICC in 2002.
----
Israel is not a member of the ICC and does not recognize the jurisdiction of the UN court, but the State of Palestine joined the organization in 2015. Once warrants against Netanyahu and Hamas leaders are issued, any of the court's 124 member-states will be obliged to arrest them if they set foot on their territory.

Back in May, 2024, certain Republican and Democrat US representatives issued a statement warning the ICC of "consequences" in the event that it pursued the Israeli prime minister and other officials. According to Axios, two anonymous Israeli officials claimed Netanyahu had asked US President Joe Biden to stop the ICC from issuing arrest warants.

The US Treasury Department has claimed that Moscow's financial institutions evade sanctions by opening subsidiaries in third countries.

Nations which maintain economic ties with Russia risk secondary sanctions if they allow Russian banks to open local branches to facilitate bilateral trade, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stated on Friday.

The measures are aimed at closing workarounds.

The department urged foreign regulators and financial institutions to be "cautious about any dealings with overseas branches or subsidiaries" of Russian banks, including efforts to set up new branches or subsidiaries, having warned that it has a range of tools to target "the establishment of new evasion channels." The measure is aimed at Russian banks that are not sanctioned yet.

Last December, US President Joe Biden ordered the introduction of so-called secondary sanctions against financial institutions that allegedly support Russia's defense sector. At the time, the US administration blacklisted over 4,500 Russian entities in an effort to force foreign lenders not to work with them.

In June, the White House expanded the scope of the crackdown on foreign banks that do business in Russia, targeting any such institution that works with any sanctioned entity in the country with the updated policy. At the same time, the US imposed sanctions on the subsidiaries of VTB, Sberbank, Promsvyazbank and Vnesheconombank in China, Kyrgyzstan and India.

Last week, Washington announced additional restrictions against 400 individuals and companies in Russia, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, accusing them of supporting Moscow's military-industrial supply chains.

Russia's Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said that the sanctions are fruitless and continue to harm US domestic consumers, as well as America's partners in third countries.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has asked if international human rights groups will pressure France over the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, given the harsh criticism levied at Russia several years ago when it tried to regulate the messaging app's operations.

Zakharova, who took to Telegram on Sunday, recalled how in 2018 a group of 28 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders, condemned a Russian court decision to block Telegram in the country.

Those NGOs demanded that Moscow "stop creating obstacles to Telegram's operations" at the time and guarantee the rights of users to publish and anonymously consume information online, she wrote.

They called upon the UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe), the EU, the US and other governments to resist Russia's move and protect the fundamental rights of freedom of expression and privacy, the spokeswoman recalled.

Zakharova reminded the NGOs that Moscow had legal issues with Telegram over the technical parameters of its encryption system, like many other countries. "Meanwhile, Durov remained free all this time, continuing to develop Telegram," she stressed.

"What do you think, will they [the NGOs] appeal to Paris this time and demand Durov's release, or will they swallow their tongues?" the spokeswoman asked her audience.

Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) were blocked by court order in Russia after the escalation of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, but Telegram remains operational in the country.

Earlier, the deputy speaker of the Russian parliament, Vladislav Davankov, called upon France to release Durov. The tech entrepreneur's arrest "could be politically motivated and used to gain access to the personal information of Telegram users," which Moscow cannot allow, he wrote in a post on Telegram.

The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France is a warning to online platforms that stand up to censorship, American journalist and political commentator Tucker Carlson has said.

The news of Durov's apparent prosecution has raised concerns online, including suggestions that it could be politically motivated.

Carlson argued:

"Durov's arrest is a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies. Darkness is descending fast on the formerly free world."

Carlson recorded a rare interview with Durov in April, in which the Telegram owner spoke about his disagreements with the Russian government, as well as the pressure he faced in the US. He said that the American government had wanted him to set up a surveillance "backdoor" on his messaging service, and he refused.

X owner Elon Musk also condemned the reported arrest. "POV: It's 2030 in Europe and you're being executed for liking a meme," he wrote in a comment to the news story.