Insiders panel on PM's response to ICC prosecutor's arrest warrant move | ABC News

just to go back over what happened this week we had the international criminal court Chief prosecutor uh announce that he was seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister the Israeli defense minister and three senior Hamas leaders it could take some time for the court to actually decide whether to issue those warrants but the fact they were bundled up like that uh did draw condemnation from the US president and others let me be clear we reject the icc's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders whatever these warrants May imply there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas this is a deeply unhelpful development of course it's still subject to final decision but it remains deeply unhelpful nonetheless there is no moral equivalence between a democratic State exercising its lawful right to self-defense and the terrorist group Hamas so look there were other leaders who uh were more supportive of of what happened here but these are of course two key Australian allies orcus Partners five eyes Partners the Australian prime minister however was unwilling to criticize this move from the chief prosecutor well I don't comment on court processes in Australia let alone Court processes globally that which Australia is not a party you agree with Jo Biden's comments and is it I I just I just answered the same question he did though later in the week uh acknowledge and make it clear that he does not believe there should be any equivalence between Israel and Hamas there is no equivalence between a terrorist organization like Hamas uh that we uh support uh that ongoing uh um classification of Hamas as a terrorist organization they confirmed on October 7th uh with the violent uh murders and the capturing of hostages that occurred on October 7 uh that that was the right designation for them to have and that compares uh should not be compared uh with any nation state Sean how do you think the PM handled this uh as far as Australia's concerned this week uh look I I think I think you have to always be aware of the the context of this debate and the context is that this has become a tremendously bad faith debate uh that anything anybody says uh is likely to be twisted um there is there is no Nuance there there is a series of you know code words password you have to of say before you move on to saying anything else to to be admitted entry into the debate it's become um I it's become a sad debate I think uh and I'm sure the Prime Minister uh I'm sure that's a big factor in in the way that the Prime Minister approached that and he refused to comment uh largely I think that that is a reasonable position at this point uh when the court the three uh member panel of the court hasn't yet handed down a decision on the prosecutors warrant or application for warrants uh if that panel rejects that application and the Prime Minister really stro in strongly then then I think he he risked looking a bit silly in a few weeks but after that I think he'll come under increased pressure uh in in both directions it'll be interesting to see whether he matches the force of some of his ministers comments this week defending the independence of the Court yeah Sam what do you think because the way this was presented by the ICC Chief prosecutor did seem to draw some equivalence right the fact that he was issuing or asking warrants for both he bundled them together look I disagree with Shan um I think that the Prime Minister mangled it I don't think that his response is reasonable and that's not to say that he needed to come out strongly you know in in One Direction or the other but I think that he projected weakness he projected confusion um he said a whole bunch of things suggesting we're not involved well we are because we're signatures to the I CC now there's a whole bunch of debates now in in terms of no we're not a party in terms of like in the actual conflict um but but we are a sign we are involved in the ICC we have embraced it and there's a whole debate now with you know Alexander Downer and people that um you know in a sense dragged the how government some cases Kicking and Screaming to this they had huge debate about it now saying that they've done the wrong thing and I think that regardless of the fact that it's a bad faith debate and I I I understand where you're coming from there um I don't think that that justifies the way in which the Prime Minister responded to it um you know part of me you know kind of thinks what on Earth was happening when they were sitting down working out how he's going to respond to these questions but ultimately that's a bad kind of response as well because he is the prime minister he should know how to answer these questions he should have a firm view on it and not run terrified away from the question

Channel: ABC News (Australia)

Views: 16,359

Keywords: Australia, abc, abc news, news, anthony albanese, icc, icc issues israel, arrest warrant, israel, hamas, benjamin netanyahu, politics, australian politics, insiders, insiders abc

Id: YrtF8AHLra4

Length: 5min 5sec (305 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2024