Biden pulls out of Yemen war in first foreign policy speech
President Biden on Thursday used his first foreign policy speech as commander-in-chief to say he’s ending US support for the Saudi Arabia-led intervention in Yemen.
The stalemated Saudi campaign began in 2015 with US backing when Biden was vice president. Then-President Barack Obama resisted calls to withdraw.
President Joe Biden “will announce an end to American support for offensive operations in Yemen,” his national security adviser said.Stefani Reynolds/Pacific Coast News
“This war has to end,” Biden said, signaling his clearest foreign policy break with Obama. “We’re ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arm sales.”
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Biden also called on Russia to release jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
In Yemen, the US primarily supplied the Saudi-led alliance with intelligence on bombing targets, but the US also approved large arms sales linked to the conflict, which often kills civilians.
Ending US involvement in the war has significant bipartisan support in Congress.
Biden said Yemeni civilians are suffering “unendurable devastation” and that USAID will work “to ensure that humanitarian aid is reaching the Yemeni people.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters at a White House press briefing Thursday that pulling out of Yemen’s civil war “is a promise that he made in the campaign that he will be following through on.”
Biden announced in his speech that diplomat Tim Lenderking will work as a special envoy to help resolve the long-running civil war, which pits an Iran-allied Shiite militia that controls most of the country’s population centers and the north of the country, against a diverse coalition of opponents.
Congress voted in 2019 to end US involvement in the civil war, but then-President Donald Trump vetoed the bill.
The Saudi campaign has failed to restore Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was elected in a one-man contest in 2012. Some Saudi-affiliated fighters have links to jihadists.
Other fighters are allied with the United Arab Emirates and want to revive the independent nation of South Yemen. At points, UAE-backed and Saudi-backed forces have fought each other.
Sullivan said Biden’s announcement will not cover US attacks on Yemen’s branch of al Qaeda.
The national security adviser said Saudi and Emirati leaders were told of the latest changes.
The new prohibition “extends to the types of offensive operations that have perpetuated a civil war in Yemen that has led to a humanitarian crisis. The types of examples of that include to arm sales of precision guided munitions that the president has halted that were moving forward at the end of the last administration,” Sullivan said.
“We have spoken with both senior officials in the UAE and senior officials in Saudi Arabia. We have consulted with them. We are pursuing a policy of no surprises when it comes to these types of actions, so they understand that this is happening, and they understand our reasoning and rationale for it.”
Source:nypost.com/2021/02/04