Rubio assails international court in speech to conservative legal group

详细摘要

Rubio attacks the International Criminal Court in a speech, defending Trump’s foreign policy and sanctions against the Hague-based tribunal. Read more at straitstimes.com.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech to the Federalist Society on Nov 13 was his first prepared remarks since Republicans were routed in the midterm elections.

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attacked the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a speech to a conservative legal group on Nov 13, arguing for a muscular foreign policy and against international law restraining US actions.

Rubio’s speech to the Federalist Society in Washington, his first prepared remarks since Republicans were routed in the midterm elections on Nov 3, heightens speculation over whether he will leave his roles as national security adviser and top US diplomat to run for president in 2028.

Rubio, who has at times sought to provide an intellectual justification for President Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, has firmly denied reports he will soon embark on a presidential campaign, but the Federalist Society is an occasional stop for Republican hopefuls.

He has dismissed criticisms that the Trump administration has broken international law by such actions as seizing Venezuelan then President Nicolas Maduro and striking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that it says were carrying drugs.

In his speech, Rubio said the goal of the US-Israeli war against Iran was to prevent Tehran from ever developing a nuclear weapon, which he said was particularly urgent because the Islamic republic’s “radical Shia clerics” had an “expansionist mentality”.

He contrasted this with the government of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, whom Trump has met three times. “I'm not excusing the terrible things that have happened there,” Rubio said of North Korea. “I'm just saying he (Kim) is not expansionist. He’s not trying to invade Japan or, you know, China or whatever.”

The US, Rubio said, would not “submit to the sterile vision of radical judges or soulless global bureaucrats”, repeating his assertion that the court would try to prosecute US officials or service members that he used to…

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