In its first weeks of government, the Biden Administration has rebuked Saudi Arabia and made concessions to Iran. How are things so far?
On Monday Israel blamed Iran for responsibility for an explosion on an Israeli merchant ship. Over the weekend, Tehran rejected US and European requests to renegotiate the nuclear deal, while Iran-backed Houthi militias intensified attacks on Saudi Arabia from Yemen with a launch of missiles and drones.
It seems that Biden’s team hoped that “recalibrating” the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has fought the 2015 acquisition of the Houthi in neighboring Yemen, would overthrow the war there. Houthis have other ideas. In early February, the State Department said it would reverse the group’s designation as a terrorist organization, but days later it had to issue a statement that it was “deeply concerned about the continuing Houthi attacks.”
The attacks have persisted and now Foggy Bottom’s language is more direct: “The United States strongly condemns the attacks of the Houthis against the population centers of Saudi Arabia on Saturday, February 27,” the state said on Sunday. “We call on the Houthis to put an end to these blatant attacks.”
But why would they listen to the houthis, when the U.S. has legitimized them with a sanction to settle for nothing, and when it spreads a strategy of welcoming its patrons into Tehran? Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is on the defensive, as Washington lowers the alliance and restricts arms sales.