Biden Ends U.S. Support For Yemen War
President Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. will no longer support offensive military operations led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, reversing a policy started by the Obama administration and continued by the Trump administration despite widespread accusations of Saudi war crimes.
U.S. President Joe Biden made the announcement during a wide-ranging foreign policy speech; that declared diplomacy would be “back at the center” of U.S. foreign policy; while condemning the war in Yemen as a “humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.”
The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of its people in need and millions on the verge of a large-scale famine.
The Yemen War
began as an internal power struggle quickly became a proxy war between Iran and Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are battling for regional dominance.
Houthi rebels, named for the tribe of the movement’s founder, captured the capital Sanaa in 2014; expelling the deeply unpopular government of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to the south of the country. The Houthis are followers of a branch of Shiite Islam and receive weapons and other support from Iran.
A coalition of Gulf states, supported by the U.S., France, and the U.K., started launching airstrikes in 2015; and landed ground forces in August of that year. Fighting has continued for more than five years with periodic cease-fires; with Yemeni forces fighting the Houthis have split into at least two factions. Hadi has spent most of the war in Saudi Arabia.
However, the Biden administration says it will help the kingdom boost its defenses against outside attacks, as part of maintaining key security, counterterrorism, and military ties with Saudi Arabia, a strategic partner, and global oil giant. Saudi state media focused on that part of Biden’s announcements Thursday.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the United States’ commitment, expressed in President Biden’s speech today; to cooperate with the Kingdom in defending its security and territory,” Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said.
“We welcome President Biden’s stated commitment to work with friends and allies to resolve conflicts, and deal with attacks from Iran & its proxies in the region,” Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, a son of King Salman and the kingdom’s deputy defense minister, tweeted.
Biden also announced the choice of Timothy Lenderking as a special envoy to Yemen.
Lenderking has been a deputy assistant secretary of state in the department’s Middle East section. A career foreign service member; he has served in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
