Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted his long-standing Israeli ally in Hungary this week, despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Netanyahu over crimes against humanity and war crimes -- including starvation as a method of warfare -- in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

The Israeli PM arrived in the Hungarian capital early on Thursday, marking his first trip to Europe since 2023. Netanyahu's visit came as Hungary announced its withdrawal from the ICC.

Orban defended the government's decision not to execute the ICC warrant against Netanyahu in his weekly radio interview, saying that it is "not customary to arrest guests" in Hungary and there was no will to do so since Israel is regarded as a "friend".

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticised the decision, calling it a "bad day" for international criminal law.

But Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said he didn't think his country or any other European state would have arrested the Israeli PM.

Netanyahu and Orban also held a call with US President Donald Trump about Hungary's decision to exit the ICC.

Now, Netanyahu heads straight to the United States, where he is set to discuss tariffs, Iran and the ICC, among other thorny issues, with Trump on Monday.

Israel had attempted to duck the US tariffs imposed on nearly every country by moving preemptively Tuesday -- a day before Trump's big global tariff announcement -- to drop all remaining duties on the one percent of American goods still affected by them.

But the US President moved ahead with the tariffs, saying the United States had a significant trade deficit with its Middle East ally and top beneficiary of military aid.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

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