Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary’s capital to red carpet treatment despite a warrant for his arrest issued by the world’s top war crimes court.
It was only the second foreign trip Mr Netanyahu has made since the International Criminal Court issued the warrant against him in November.
As Mr Netanyahu arrived in Budapest on Thursday, Hungary said it will begin the procedure of withdrawing from the ICC.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives at a welcoming ceremony for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Buda Castle in Budapest (Denes Erdos/AP)
“Hungary will withdraw from the International Criminal Court,” Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, wrote in a brief statement.
“The government will initiate the withdrawal procedure on Thursday, in accordance with the constitutional and international legal framework.”
Mr Netanyahu was greeted with full military honours in the Castle District of the capital Budapest, where he stood alongside Mr Orban as a military band played and processions of soldiers on horseback and carrying swords and bayoneted rifles passed by.
The two leaders were set to hold talks later on Thursday.
Mr Netanyahu will spend several days in Hungary before departing on Sunday.
The ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said there was reason to believe Mr Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas — charges that Israeli officials deny.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, participate in a welcoming ceremony at Buda Castle (AP)
Member countries of the ICC, such as Hungary, are required to arrest suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that and relies on states to comply.
After the ICC issued the warrant in November, Mr Orban accused the world’s only permanent global tribunal for war crimes and genocide of “interfering in an ongoing conflict for political purposes”, saying the move undermined international law and escalated tensions.
His invitation to Mr Netanyahu was in open defiance of the court’s ruling.
Hungary joined the court in 2001 during Mr Orban’s first term as prime minister.
Mr Netanyahu in February met US President Donald Trump in Washington DC, where Mr Trump suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the US take “ownership” in redeveloping the area into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
Neither the US or Israel are signatories to the ICC.
Mr Trump in February issued sanctions against the court for its investigations into Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them children.