MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the issuance of ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Answering a TASS question, Peskov explained that these decisions have no legal force for Russia.

"We don’t see the point in commenting on this in any way because these decisions are null and void for us," he said.

On Thursday, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. The ICC also demanded the arrest of Mohammed Deif, commander of the Palestinian Hamas military wing, who was declared dead by the Israeli army back in August.

The International Criminal Court

The ICC was established by the 1998 Rome Statute. In total, 123 countries are currently parties to the document. The court, based in The Hague, has branches in the countries where investigations are underway.

Ukraine signed the Rome Statute back on January 20, 2000, but never ratified it even though it was obliged to do so under the 2014 EU association agreement.

The countries that are not parties to the Rome Statute include Russia (signed but did not ratify it), the US (signed it but later revoked its signature) and China (never signed it). In 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order saying that the country would not become a party to the ICC. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, "the ICC has failed to live up to expectations and has not become a truly independent body of international justice."