The United States Government has withdrawn this Wednesday the sanctions imposed against United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, just a week after a federal judge in Washington temporarily suspended the measures promoted by the Administration of
The decision has been published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department, which has officially removed Albanese’s name from the list of sanctioned persons, thus lifting both the financial restrictions and the ban on entry into US territory.
The move represents an important turn after months of enormous tension between Washington and the Italian rapporteur, very critical of the and one of the most forceful international voices when it comes to calling for investigations into possible war crimes.
The judge stopped the sanctions
On May 13, a federal court in Washington paralyzed the measures adopted by Trump in 2025, considering that they could be unconstitutional and violate freedom of expression.
Albanese’s family had also denounced the strong personal impact that the sanctions were having. The rapporteur has family ties in the United States and, according to his lawyers, the restrictions prevented him from even accessing his home in Washington, where his daughter, a US citizen, resides.
The Trump Administration had sanctioned Albanese in July 2025 within the program of measures related to the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing it of promoting international legal actions against Israel and the United States.
Head-on clash with Trump over Gaza
For months, Francesca Albanese became one of the great diplomatic targets of the White House for her reports and statements on Gaza.
The rapporteur called for investigating possible war crimes committed by both Israeli and American authorities during the conflict and He repeatedly denounced the humanitarian situation in the Strip.
Washington He even accused her of promoting a kind of “legal war” against allies of the United States.
In fact, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, He claimed in February that Albanese was using international organizations to politically attack Washington and Israel.
That is why the withdrawal of sanctions also represents a major political setback for the strategy promoted by Trump around Gaza and international organizations.
