The Foreign Ministry did not say outright that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel would be free to travel to France, but it argued that an I.C.C. rule on immunity may apply to him.

The French foreign ministry suggested that Netanyahu may have immunity from arrest because Israel isn’t a signatory to the court’s founding treaty.

France says it intends to continue to work in close collaboration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite the arrest warrant issued for him by the world’s top war crimes court