BUDAPEST, Nov 22 — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, on Friday said he would invite Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu to visit and defy an ICC arrest warrant.

The Hague-based court on Thursday issued warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024”.

Orban called the ICC’s decision "outrageously brazen and "cynical”, saying it "intervenes in an ongoing conflict... dressed up as a legal decision, but in fact for political purposes”.

"There is no choice here, we have to defy this decision,” the nationalist leader said in his weekly interview with state radio.

"Later today, I will invite the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary, where I will guarantee him, if he comes, that the judgment of the International Criminal Court will have no effect in Hungary, and that we will not follow its terms,” he added.

Hungary signed the Rome Statute, the international treaty that created the ICC, in 1999 and ratified it two years later during Orban’s first term in office.

However, Budapest has not promulgated the associated convention for reasons of constitutionality and therefore asserts that it is not obliged to comply with ICC decisions.

Hungary previously said it would not arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin either, who is also wanted by the ICC for the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

Orban is the only EU leader to have maintained close ties with the Kremlin following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and he is also one of the closest partner of Israel in the bloc.

The nationalist leader has already faced a backlash for his country’s norm-defying EU presidency, which saw him jetting to Moscow right after taking over the six-month stint in July. — AFP