By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE:An Israeli Government Spokesperson urges Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honor an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travels to the country, The Times of Israel reported this week.

“We believe that Prime Minister Carney should, of course, reconsider this and welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the only Jewish state and democratic country in the Middle East, to Canada,” Spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian tells reporters.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Carney was asked if he would fulfill the commitment of his predecessor Justin Trudeau to detain Netanyahu on war crimes charges, to which Carney replied “yes.”

The International Criminal Court last week rejected Israel’s bid to appeal against arrest warrants issued by the ICC for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war with Hamas in Gaza.