Washington (Quds News Network)- The US imposed new sanctions on Wednesday against four International Criminal Court (ICC) officials on the basis that any attempt to "investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute" American or Israeli officials constitutes a threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States in what the ICC has denounced as a “flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution”. The new sanctions target the ICC judges Kimberly Prost of Canada and Nicolas Guillou of France and prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal. “These individuals are foreign persons who directly engaged in efforts by the international criminal court to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of either nation,” the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said. He added that the administration would continue “to take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our troops, our sovereignty and our allies from the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions”. In a separate statement, the state department said Prost was sanctioned for a ruling to authorize an ICC investigation into personnel in Afghanistan, which was later dropped. Guillou was sanctioned for ruling to authorize the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former minister of defense Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Khan and Niang were penalized for continuing Karim Khan’s investigation into Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including upholding the ICC’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, according to the statement. Khan and Niang had also prepared arrest warrants for Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on apartheid charges. ICC Response The ICC issued a statement calling the sanctions “a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution” and “an affront against the Court’s states parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world”. A UN spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said the ICC had the full support of the world body to carry out its work. The UN was “very concerned” about the US continuing to target the international court, he said. “We firmly believe that the ICC is a key pillar of international criminal justice, and we respect their work,” Dujarric said. “The decision imposes severe impediments on the functioning of the office of the prosecutor in respect for all the situations that are currently before the court.” The sanctions are the latest attack on the ICC. Since President Donald Trump's executive order was issued in February, the US has now sanctioned nine individuals at the ICC. The US administration sanctioned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan in February because of his role in pursuing the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the court’s work on Afghanistan. James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society’s justice initiative and former ICC prosecutor, said: “As a court of last resort, the ICC is the one place victims of the most serious crimes can turn to when other avenues have failed them in their search for truth and justice. These new designations of ICC judges threaten their hopes and embolden the perpetrators.” “Sanctions against ICC officials are a betrayal of America’s proud commitment to the rule of law and international justice.”