Appeasing U-Turn
After long weeks of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, the Biden team on Wednesday finally put the outfit back on the US list of foreign terror groups — even as it still refuses to confront Iran for handing the Houthis the weapons to attack.
This, when two Navy SEALs were lost in the mission off the Somali coast that seized stocks of Iran-made missiles and cruise-missile components on their way to the Houthis in Yemen — fresh proof that Tehran is enabling the attack on global supply chains.
As US Central Command chief Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla notes, Iran’s lethal-aid shipments are in “direct violation of UN Security Resolution 2216 and international law.”
Yet all the White House will allow (after months of attacks) is minor strikes to “degrade” the Houthis’ capabilities. As for the Iranians, the prez sent them a stiff note: “We delivered it privately,” Biden said last Friday.
Whatever threats he made, what reason does Tehran have to believe them? Biden not only routinely voices his fear of “escalation,” he’s shown it in every foreign crisis.
Heck, it was Biden who took the Houthis off the terror list back in early 2021, in another of his “undo everything Trump” moves and an obvious part of his administration’s bid to make Iran feel loved.
And just last week he claimed that re-listing the Houthis would be “irrelevant,” so doing it now is plainly an empty gesture made only because the White House wants to look serious.
The U-turn also represents another step in the collapse of Biden’s Mideast strategy, even as Iran’s strategy has it thisclose to going nuclear.
Look: Just days before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was bragging in print, “The Middle East is quieter than it has been in decades” thanks to Biden’s policies. And Team Joe hasn’t changed its approach despite all the blood and chaos that’s followed. Their strategy is in ruins, but pinpricks, symbolism and appeasement are still all they can think to offer.
What’s needed is a serious, all-hands-ondeck drive to face the Iranian threat, including smashing the Houthis and any other of Tehran’s proxies that acts up. Instead, all we’re likely to get is another one of those empty Biden whispers of “Don’t.”