U.S. sanctions UN human rights rapporteur Francesca Albanese

The United States has imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur, accusing her of seeking to provoke legal actions against U.S. and Israeli officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions Tuesday on social media platform X, citing Albanese’s “unlawful and shameful attempts to push the International Criminal Court to act against officials, companies and leaders of the United States and Israel.”

Rubio said Washington would continue to support its partners' right to self-defense and would not tolerate what he called Albanese's "political and economic war" against the U.S. and Israel.