Biden launches new effort to end civil war in Yemen and interrupts “offensive” aid to Saudis, naming envoy

The president, in statements to the State Department, also said U.S. support for offensive operations in Yemen would end, “including relevant arms sales.” He added that the war has created “a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.”

The president also issued strong warnings about the rapidly developing crises in Russia and Myanmar, although he promised to restore to U.S. foreign policy the emphasis on multilateral cooperation and democratic alliance that he said he had “atrophied during the last years of neglect and, I would say, abuse.”

He also tried to raise morale among the State Department staff after years of internal upheavals: “This administration will allow you to do your job, not direct or politicize yourself.”

The president’s actions on Yemen include his recent decision to stop the sale of American weapons of precision-guided ammunition in Riyadh, said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, but he did not it will affect anti-terrorist operations against Al Qaeda in the region.

It was not immediately possible to determine what other military aid would be affected. The United States in 2018 halted the air supply of Saudi military aircraft involved in the Yemen strike. Since then, only a limited amount of intelligence gathering and sharing and a small amount of logistical support have continued.

Biden had noted during his campaign that he would take a different approach from Yemen and the Saudi-led military campaign with respect to the Trump administration. Sullivan said the White House had consulted with senior officials in Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates about its decision.

“We’re following a ‘no surprise’ policy when it comes to these kinds of actions,” Sullivan said, “so they understand that this is happening and they understand our reasoning and reason for it.”

Among Mr. Lenderking’s first tasks will be to encourage the warring parties to take measures to ceasefire. Among the belligerents are the Houthi rebel force that controls much of the country and a Saudi-led military coalition that supports the internationally recognized government based in the port city of Aden.

Ending the war in Yemen will be an extremely difficult job, the senior official said. “He doesn’t succeed without daily attention” that a presidential envoy can give him, the official said.

A senior Saudi official said the country was hoping to work with Mr. Lenderking “to achieve our joint goal of ending the war in Yemen through a political resolution.”

“Building on our commitment to continue to support our advocacy, we will work with the Biden administration to ensure that our ability to protect our borders and our cities is not degraded by the decisions that will be announced today.” , said the official. “The United States and the United Kingdom are aligned with the ultimate goal, which is a political process that ends the conflict in Yemen, while ensuring that our borders and regional security are protected.”

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis political council, said: “If the US administration is serious about this, I think the aggression will stop,” referring to the coalition-led offensive. ‘Saudi Arabia.

“Aggression is American in the first place because America is behind Saudi and UAE aggression,” he said.

Tens of thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, according to the United Nations, which warned in November that Yemen was facing an imminent threat of widespread catastrophic famine.

Mr. Biden’s announcement points to a more active U.S. approach to ending the war and that Washington is seen as a more neutral party. The Trump administration also worked to bring peace to Yemen, but generally supported the conflict in Saudi Arabia, a close ally of the United States. He sold arms from Riyadh and worked to isolate the Houthis, whom he considered a representative force of Iran, the region’s main American adversary.

The Biden administration has already moved away from the Trump administration’s approach. In addition to ending support for offensive operations, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also reviewing whether to rescind the Trump administration’s designation of Tehran-aligned houthis as a foreign terrorist group. Another U.S. official familiar with the matter said the action of former President Donald Trump is likely to be reversed.

Western officials and aid agencies have said the terrorist designation, which went into effect the day before Trump left office, could hamper peace talks and hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation.

Pending a decision on the matter, the Treasury Department last week issued a general license that allows aid groups to continue delivering humanitarian supplies to Houthi-controlled territory without fear of being prosecuted for working with a terrorist group.

The intention of the Treasury action is to “make sure the Yemeni people have the help they need,” the senior official said.

The senior administration official said the idea of ​​a full-time American person in Yemen arose from the quiet diplomacy the Biden administration carried out in its early days with the envoy. UN special Martin Griffiths and others. Lenderking is expected to work closely with Griffiths, as well as with U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Christopher Henzel, who operates at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh.

“One thing that was missing from the approach was that we didn’t have an American person with the ability to work in that full time,” the senior official said.

Lenderking, who is well known in the region, until recently oversaw Gulf and Yemen affairs in the Middle East State Department office. Earlier, he was the No. 2 officer at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia and toured twice as a diplomatic adviser in Baghdad.

“Meet the players. He knows everyone involved in the Yemeni conflict, ”said the senior official.

Still, Mr. Lenderking faces what U.S. officials and analysts say is a strong challenge to help end the war, which began after the Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa and other areas. 2014, provoking a 2015 military intervention by the Saudis. led the coalition.

There have been no UN-sponsored peace talks in several years and the Houthis last year rejected a unilateral truce observed by the Saudis, demanding more concessions.

“The war in Yemen will be a huge challenge for any new envoy. No comprehensive peace talks have taken place since 2016 and there is still little political will on the part of the Houthis or the Hadi government to get to the table, ”said Elana DeLozier, a Yemeni specialist at the Institute of Politics. of the Middle East in Washington. to the internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. “Yemen does not lend itself to rapid learning in the workplace, so it is imperative to have someone who already knows the benefits of the complex set of conflicts.”

—Gordon Lubold, Stephen Kalin and Saleh al-Batati contributed to this article.

Write to Warren P. Strobel to [email protected]