According to an exclusive report from Colum Lynch in Foreign Policy, the United States agreed to let France “distribute the text of a draft Security Council resolution authorizing an ICC investigation into alleged Syrian atrocities.”
The U.S. has officially opposed this route until now on the grounds that it was “wholly inadequate in confronting mass atrocities in Syria.” But now, the U.S. is supporting the plan to investigate and prosecute war crimes in Syria.
With one catch. Lynch reports:
The United States indicated that it could support the text after seeking assurances that the ICC prosecutor, based in The Hague, would have no authority to investigate any possible war crimes by Israel, which has occupied the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War in 1967…
Gee, you’d think the U.S. would want alleged war crimes to be investigated, regardless of who commits them. A war crime is a war crime is a war crime…right?
For more on the U.S.’s effort to prevent any investigation into Israeli war crimes, see here.