Biden ending support for offensive
President Joe Biden announced Thursday the United States was ending support for a grinding fiveyear Saudi-led military offensive in Yemen that has deepened suffering in the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country, calling the move part of restoring a U.S. emphasis on diplomacy, democracy and human rights.
“The war has created a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe,” Biden told diplomats in his first visit to the State Department as president. “This war has to end.”
The Yemen reversal is one of a series of changes Biden laid out Thursday that he said would mark a course correction for U.S. foreign policy. That’s after President Donald Trump — and some Republican and Democratic administrations before his — often aided authoritarian leaders abroad in the name of stability.
The announcement on Yemen fulfills a campaign pledge. But it also shows Biden putting the spotlight on a major humanitarian crisis that the United States has helped aggravate. The reversing of policy also comes as a rebuke to Saudi Arabia, a global oil giant and U.S. strategic partner.
Saudi Arabia responded Thursday, welcoming an assurance by Biden that the United States would continue cooperation on the kingdom’s defense. In a statement on the official Saudi press agency, the kingdom said it appreciated international diplomatic efforts, affirming “its firm position President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy at the State Department in Washington on Thursday. in support of a comprehensive political solution to the Yemeni crisis.” The kingdom also stressed its humanitarian aid to Yemenis. The ending of U.S. support for the offensive will not affect any U.S. operations against the Yemenbased al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, group, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Biden also announced an end to “relevant” U.S. arms sales but gave no immediate details on what that would mean. The administration already has said it was pausing some of the billions of dollars in arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia’s main partner in its Yemeni offensive.
Saudi officials have offered a series of conciliatory gestures and remarks since Biden’s election, seeking to soothe the 75-yearold relationship with the United States. On Thursday, the State Department said the kingdom had conditionally released two dual Saudi-U.S. citizens detained in a crackdown on civil society there, and reduced a sentence for a third, Dr. Walid Fitaihi, convicted of “disobedience” to the government.