No 10 'regrets' Trump administration sanctions on senior figures in International Criminal Court, as Kushner visits

President's son-in-law and senior adviser holding talks with Dominic Raab on Middle East peace effort

President Donald Trump's White House senior adviser Jared Kushner speaks at a press briefing at the White House in Washington (AP)

Downing Street has said it “regrets” the decision of Donald Trump’s administration to sanction senior figures in the International Criminal Court.

The rebuke came as the US president’s son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner visited London for talks with foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

It was not immediately clear whether the ICC move was discussed in the meeting at the Foreign Office, which was joined briefly by Boris Johnson.

Mr Trump issued an executive order in June allowing the US to block the assets of ICC employees and stop them entering the country.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, were to be sanctioned under this order.

The US is one of a dozen states which have not signed up to the ICC, and the current move was being seen as a response into ongoing investigations into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

Responding to the US action, Mr Johnson’s official spokesman said: “The UK regrets the measures taken by the US against ICC employees.

“These officials must be able to carry out their work independently and impartially, without fear of sanction.”

Mr Kushner stopped off in London on his way back to the US from a tour of the Middle East, where he has been attempting to broker a breakthrough in the peace process and create a coalition to counter Iranian influence in the region.

His talks at the Foreign Office are thought to have focused on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. Kushner, who has been leading the Trump administration’s work on a peace deal, was on board the first direct commercial passenger flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel on Monday to mark a US-brokered deal to normalise relations.

Mr Raab welcomed US peace plans released by the White House in January as “a serious proposal, reflecting extensive time and effort”, though they were widely dismissed as excessively favourable towards Israel.