More than two years ago, on Dec. 13, 2018, citing the horrific civilian death toll and the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, the Senate voted to withdraw U.S. military support for the civil war in Yemen that has been worsened by the intervention of Saudi Arabia under the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed Salman. It was the first time the Senate had called for withdrawing troops from a war Congress did not authorize, and it was a big win for progressive activists who had been working on the issue for years. Two months later the House of Representatives did likewise, invoking the 1973 War Powers Act that was designed to limit presidential authority with a resolution withdrawing support for a war the United Nations has called one of the worst humanitarian disasters on the planet. However, the occupant of the White House at the time, Donald Trump, issued the second veto of his term of office against the withdrawal.
President Joe Biden is now moving to end military support to the Saudis. This consists of providing them with intelligence and selling them arms. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan made the announcement Thursday, previewing a speech Biden will give the State Department. “We have spoken with both senior officials in the UAE and senior officials in Saudi Arabia,” Sullivan said. “We are pursuing a policy of no surprises when it comes to these types of actions.”
Julian Borger reports:
The distancing of Washington from Riyadh is one of the most conspicuous reversals of Donald Trump’s agenda, but it also marks a break with the policies pursued by Barack Obama, who had backed the Saudi offensive in Yemen, although he later sought to impose constraints on its air war. […]
The US will also freeze arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and name a special envoy to Yemen, to put more pressure on the Saudis, Emiratis and the Houthi forces they are fighting, to make a lasting peace agreement.
The special envoy will be Timothy Lenderking, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who has previously served as deputy assistant secretary of state for the Middle East.
By the estimate of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), the 6-year-old conflict has cost the lives of some 130,000 people. This includes 13,000 civilians, many of them fatalities in targeted airstrikes. Last year, more than 19,000 such fatalities were reported—a 29% decrease over 2019, but still the third-deadliest year of the war.
The already complicated situation in Yemen has been heightened by Iran’s support for the Houthi rebels that Saudi efforts have sought to crush. Aside from Israel, the Saudis and Iranians are the two powerhouses in the region, both heavily armed, with much of Riyadh’s arsenal obtained from the United States.
As Anneline Sheline writes at Responsible Statecraft:
As long as the U.S. remains the preeminent military force in the region and its main supplier of weapons, America is culpable for Yemen’s destruction.
Yemenis are aware of this, even if many Americans are not. The war is known as the Saudi-American war in Yemen. The blockade of the Houthi-controlled ports is referred to as the American blockade. Starting in mid December 2020, an online campaign circulated on Twitter in Arabic with the hashtag “Yes to the end of the American blockade of Yemen.”
President Biden is taking a crucial first step. But as Sheline points out, more is required. In addition, he should push the Saudis and Emiratis to pull out of Yemen and stop backing the warring factions. At the same time, a quick U.S. return to the shattered Iran nuclear agreement could create some confidence-building for further talks with Iran over ending its support for the Houthis and tamping down the antagonism between Riyadh and Tehran. A tall order, to be sure. But Biden’s withdrawal of support marks an important move away from America’s counterproductive policies in the region, worsened by Trump’s wretched four years in office. That should make the next steps at least slightly easier.
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