WASHINGTON, Feb 5, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – President Joe Biden on Thursday ended
US support for Saudi Arabia’s devastating war in Yemen and dramatically
increased the welcome to refugees, ushering in a major reset in American
foreign policy.
In his first major speech on foreign affairs as president, Biden also froze
former president Donald Trump’s plans to redeploy troops from Germany and
vowed a tough approach against what he described as a rising authoritarian
threat from China and Russia.
Two weeks into their term, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled
together to the State Department in a symbol of a renewed focus on diplomacy
after Trump’s tumultuous four years.
“America is back. Diplomacy is back,” Biden told a socially distanced
auditorium of diplomats.
In a speech shortly afterward in the ornate Benjamin Franklin room, Biden
said the United States would end all support including connected arms sales
for ally Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, which he said “has created a
humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.”
He appointed a US special envoy for Yemen, veteran diplomat Timothy
Lenderking, who Biden said would support UN efforts to reach a ceasefire and
revive peace talks between the government and Huthi rebels who control much
of the country including the capital Sanaa.
The United States will work “to ensure that humanitarian aid is reaching
the Yemeni people who are suffering unendurable devastation.”
“This war has to end,” Biden said.
Activists have been pushing to end US support for the war in Yemen, where
80 percent of the population is surviving on aid in what the United Nations
calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Trump offered US logistical assistance and sales including of precision-
guided bombs, arguing that Saudi Arabia was creating US defense jobs.
Trump also viewed the war as a way to hit back at the Huthis’ ally Iran, a
fixation for the last administration which saw the Shiite clerical regime as
an arch-enemy.
Biden backs a return of diplomacy and a nuclear accord with Iran but,
strikingly, he only indirectly mentioned Tehran in what was billed as a
broad-brush speech on his international priorities.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he will quickly revisit Trump’s
last-minute designation of the Huthis as a terrorist group — a move that aid
groups say effectively criminalizes vital humanitarian work.
In Yemen, senior political official Hamid Assem voiced hope that Biden’s
plan will mark the end of a six-year war that has left tens of thousands
dead.
“The Biden administration saw that the war in Yemen carries a heavy cost
and that America’s reputation has been tarnished by the killing of the people
of Yemen,” he told AFP.
– ‘Moral leadership’ on refugees –
In another sharp reversal, Biden said the United States will welcome up to
125,000 refugees in the first fiscal year of his administration — far above
the record-low 15,000 last approved by Trump, who was a vociferous critic of
non-Western immigration.
“The United States’ moral leadership on refugee issues was a point of
bipartisan consensus for so many decades when I first got here,” said Biden,
who was elected to the Senate in 1972.
“We shine the light, the lamp, of liberty on oppressed people. And our
example pushed other countries to open wide their doors as well.”
Among groups seeking asylum, Biden said his administration would welcome
LGBTQ people fleeing persecution over their sexual orientation.
Biden also put on hold plans set in motion by Trump to reduce the US troop
presence in Germany, a cornerstone of NATO security since the start of the
Cold War.
Trump’s decision was seen as linked to his tense relationship with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel — whose welcome to mostly Syrian migrants he
belittled.
Defense Secretary Austin Lloyd later said he had ordered a Pentagon review
of US military “force posture” around the world.
“We will consult our allies and partners as we conduct this review,” Lloyd
said in a statement. “No one succeeds at this business alone.”
– No more ‘rolling over’ to Russia –
Biden has pledged to keep up Trump’s hard stance on China — but also to
toughen the US stance on Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the
defeated US president voiced admiration.
“I made it clear to President Putin — in a manner very different from my
predecessor — that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of
Russia’s aggressive actions, interfering with our elections, cyber attack and
poisoning its citizens are over,” Biden said.
“We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital
interest in our people.”
Moments before the speech, the State Department said that Blinken spoke by
telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and, among other
issues, raised the purported poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny —
who was arrested last month on his return to Moscow and has inspired
thousands to take to the streets.
Biden said the United States “must meet this new moment of advancing
authoritarianism including the growing ambitions of China to rival the United
States and the determination of Russia to damage and disrupt our democracy.”