ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Washington has imposed new sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), hours after a Nobel Peace Prize announcement involving a former court judge on Friday who led investigations into potential charges against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that Washington was sanctioning the ICC, adding that President Donald Trump “will never allow” the court “to prosecute Americans.”

“We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us,” Rubio said in a video message.

The announcement came hours after South African jurist Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Pillay had led investigations into potential ICC charges against US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the move predates the Nobel Prize announcement.

The sanctions block any assets the ICC holds in US jurisdictions and give US companies and individuals six months to wind down business with the court.

Washington’s latest move follows sanctions imposed on several ICC officials, largely in response to the court’s investigations involving Israel, a US ally.

Established in 2002, the ICC prosecutes individuals accused of the gravest atrocities and serves as a court of last resort when national legal systems are unable or unwilling to ensure accountability.

The ICC rejected the sanctions, calling them “an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the Court from doing what it was created to do.”

“The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes,” said ICC President Tomoko Akane.