Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong warned over failure to condemn ICC arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been urged to condemn the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants issued for Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli Prime Minister’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant by a top Trump associate.

“There’s going to be hell to pay … for any international leader complicit in that bulls...,” said Kevin Roberts, head of influential think tank the Heritage Foundation.

Mr Albanese has not commented on the ICC’s warrants issued 10 days ago for the arrests of the Israeli PM and Mr Gallant, alleging Israeli war crimes including starvation, in Gaza.

But Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Senate last week that she respected the ICC’s independence.

“I certainly don’t propose to speculate on hypotheticals,” Senator Wong said.

“What I can say to the chamber is that Australia will act consistently with our obligations under international law, and our approach will be informed by international law, not by politics.”

Mr Roberts’ Heritage Foundation authored Project 2025 and financially backed MAGA candidates.

“It is ill-advised … for any thoughtful, perceived ally of the United States to do anything other than condemn that and take heroic action against it,” Mr Roberts told a private dinner in London attended by The Nightly.

When pressed by The Nightly about what that would look like, he said: “I don’t know details” and referred to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham who has warned “any ally” that aided the ICC would face US sanctions.

Mr Roberts, who is a friend of vice-president-elect JD Vance, stressed he was not speaking for the incoming administration but said: “The politics in the United States are such that the base that elected Mr Trump and Mr Vance are incensed by this treatment of Mr Netanyahu.

“And that coincides with the massive distrust that conservative voters in America and I’d say in Britain have of the ICC, these supernational organisations undermine self-governance.”

The Biden Administration and the governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK, as well as many European partners, have all been unsuccessfully calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s year-long bombardment of Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ deadly assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The ICC’s move has further exposed the divide in Western countries with pro-Palestinian voters urging their governments to do more to stop Israel’s war on Hamas.

The arrests can only be enforced by states that are willing. For example, ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, but the Russian President has traveled since then to friendly countries, including North Korea and China, where he knows he will not be detained.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he would abide by the ICC’s ruling and regulations. The Labour-led UK government along with France have also suggested they could comply.

However, Germany’s Left-wing coalition government has said it is sceptical it would enforce the warrants.

But the efforts to stop Israel’s assault on Hamas in Gaza have largely been fruitless. Mr Netanyahu has instead widened his military retaliation to include and successfully weaken Lebanese-based Hezbollah which, along with Hamas, is a proxy of Iran.

Hezbollah, which began firing rockets into northern Israel after Hamas’ attack, has now agreed to a ceasefire after its leadership was wiped out by Israel.

On the day the ceasefire with Hezbollah was announced, rebel forces in Syria launched a stunning offensive against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, reviving the once-dormant conflict that raged in another of Israel’s neighbours and capturing the city of Aleppo in three days.

Their success reflects Iran’s weakening power and Russia’s preoccupation with President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The Institute for the Study of War said: “The Syrian regime may struggle to rally the same support from the Axis of Resistance and Russia that they previously provided, which will impede pro-regime counteroffensives.”

Mr Roberts said he expected US President-elect Donald Trump to be very aggressive on Iran, once inaugurated.

But he said that all allies needed to do in order to have a good relationship with the incoming Trump Administration was to get to know the President before judging him.

“All allies have to do is spend time with him and spend less time trying to assess him from afar (and) less time reading inaccurate assessments about what his motivations are.”