France Defends Netanyahu’s Airspace Transit Despite ICC Arrest Warrant

Paris, MINA – France said Thursday that allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane to transit its airspace did not contradict international law, despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for him, Anadolu Agency reports.

Speaking to reporters, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux argued that allowing Netanyahu’s plane to travel through French airspace was “fully in accordance with international law.”

Mentioning how France had allowed this before, Confavreux said the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, does not impose an “obligation” on member states on the transit through their airspace of a state aircraft carrying a passenger who is subject to an arrest warrant.

Turning to the Middle East, Confavreux said the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement between Israel and Syria is still valid and that France has called on all parties, including Israel, to comply with it. Also reaffirming France’s support for the UN Disengagement Observer Force, a UN peacekeeping mission tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Syria, he stressed that France expects “an end to all military deployments” in the buffer zone between the two countries. Any military deployment in the area violates the 1974 agreement, he noted.

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Earlier Thursday, the plane carrying Netanyahu to the US to attend the UN General Assembly used the airspace of Greece, Italy, and France despite the arrest warrant for him issued by the International Criminal Court. According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, his plane left Israel early Thursday for the US to attend the UN General Assembly and crossed the airspace of European countries that are members of the International Criminal Court. All three countries are parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, and are generally required to cooperate with the court’s requests to arrest and surrender wanted individuals found on their territory.[]

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)

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