{"id":28512,"date":"2022-12-17T07:33:42","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T07:33:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=28512"},"modified":"2026-07-10T02:43:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:43:51","slug":"white-house-justifies-saudi-support-in-yemen-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/12\/17\/white-house-justifies-saudi-support-in-yemen-war\/","title":{"rendered":"White\u00a0House\u00a0Justifies\u00a0Saudi\u00a0Support\u00a0in\u00a0Yemen\u00a0War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The White House on Friday defended its decision to block a war powers resolution in the Senate that would have ended U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, saying it would have impeded delicate diplomatic talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to see that peace enduring and we want to see it sustainable. And so that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about the importance of making sure our diplomacy can succeed,\u201d National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an interview with VOA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. support for a U.N.-brokered truce and peace talks has \u201cachieved a measure of success,\u201d Kirby said. \u201cWe want to make sure we can lock that in and keep that going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, the administration clashed with Bernie Sanders over the resolution put forward by the Vermont independent senator that would have banned U.S. support for Saudi-led offensive operations in its war in Yemen. Facing intense opposition, including a veto threat from President Joe Biden and a lack of support from his Senate colleagues, Sanders withdrew the resolution and agreed to negotiate further with the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"FILE
FILE – Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 25, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look forward to working with the administration who is opposed to this resolution and see if we can come up with something that is strong and effective,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cIf we do not, I will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administration officials have declined to elaborate on what they seek in negotiations with Sanders.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yemen\u2019s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents \u2013 Shiite rebels backed by Iran \u2013 took over the capital, Sanaa. Beginning in March 2015, with logistical and intelligence support from the Obama administration, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia launched a campaign of economic isolation and airstrikes against the Houthis, in effect turning the conflict into a Sunni-Shia proxy war between regional powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to U.N. data, more than 370,000 people have died in the conflict, with 60 percent of the deaths resulting from indirect causes such as lack of food, water and health services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cease-fire expired, peace largely held<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violence paused in April 2022 under the U.N.-negotiated cease-fire, which has largely held even though it expired in October \u2013 a factor in the administration\u2019s opposition to the resolution, said Gerald Feierstein, who was U.S. ambassador to Yemen during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere has not been a Saudi military campaign in Yemen for eight months now. Why are we talking about a war powers resolution?\u201d said Feierstein, now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders and others have argued that there is no diplomatic progress on the ground and violence could erupt at any moment. Biden\u2019s own special envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, has warned that a failure to reach a new peace agreement would precipitate a \u201creturn to war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"FILE
FILE – An elderly man walks past a peddler selling bread in a market in Taez, Yemen, Oct. 4, 2022. A truce in the Yemeni civil war lapsed two days earlier, yet peace has largely held since then.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Still, James F. Jeffrey, a former U.S. special envoy to the global coalition to defeat ISIS and now chair of the Wilson Center\u2019s Middle East Program, opposes the resolution, saying it would \u201cplay into the hands of the Houthis, who after all are aiding Iran, trying to overthrow the internationally recognized government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some are unconvinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Houthis know quite well that an unprovoked attack on Saudi Arabia would undermine their argument internally in Yemen that they are fighting a foreign invader,\u201d said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. \u201cMoreover, it would very likely change the calculations in Washington and restart U.S. support for the Saudis in what would be seen as a defensive war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parsi added that even if taken at face value, the administration’s argument about Houthi calculations \u201cdoes not justify allowing Saudi Arabia to have a bigger say than Congress on whether the U.S. should or should not support Riyadh’s war.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump vetoed a Yemen war powers resolution, a decision\u00a0decried\u00a0by officials who are now key players in the Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US-Saudi relations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s shift away from his\u00a0February 2021 pledge\u00a0to end \u201call American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen\u201d is emblematic of his evolving view on relations with the Saudi kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November, the administration determined that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be granted immunity in a lawsuit over his role in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, even though during his presidential campaign Biden vowed to make the kingdom a \u201cpariah\u201d for the slaying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"FILE
FILE – President Joe Biden participates in a working session with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Al Salman Royal Palace, July 15, 2022, in Jeddah.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In October, when the Saudis pushed OPEC members to slash oil production, ignoring Washington\u2019s request to increase output to offset price increases triggered by the war in Ukraine, the administration said it would review whether the relationship with Saudi Arabia still served U.S. interests \u2013 a review that has not materialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will judge the way forward based on their actions, as well as our ongoing consultations with partners and allies, and also the new Congress that is going to be before us very soon, and the Saudis as well,\u201d Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, told VOA during a recent press briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Pierre declined to say whether growing ties between Saudi Arabia and China have played a factor in the administration\u2019s stance on Riyadh. But with oil availability a more pressing issue since Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine, the Saudis are in a strong position \u201cto be able to play everybody off against everybody else,\u201d Feierstein said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden has prioritized strengthening the bond between the United States and its allies at a time when talks to halt Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons program have collapsed and Israel, historically a core U.S. ally, has elected a right-wing government whose interests may not align with those of Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under such circumstances, the U.S. in many cases is \u201clikely going to be more deferential to certain partners \u2013 and more forgiving of their misdeeds,\u201d Parsi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChina’s success in courting Saudi Arabia may have increased the sense of crisis in Washington when it comes to Saudi Arabia,\u201d said William Figueroa, a research associate focusing on China in the Middle East at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics. \u201cBut the odds were low that the U.S. was ever going to seriously alter its relationship with the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figueroa added, \u201cThis anxiety is more a reflection of the U.S. environment and fears that the United States is no longer the world-spanning superpower it once was. In fact, it very much is, but any retreat of American power abroad, however minor, is often portrayed in catastrophic terms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mykhailo Komadovsky <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House on Friday defended its decision to block a war powers resolution in the Senate that would have ended U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, saying it would have impeded delicate diplomatic talks. \u201cWe want to see that peace enduring and we want to see it sustainable. And so that’s what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5304,5777,3115,5178,5673,11162,850,10387,11583,9649,3189,10327,10767,6693,8440,7396,10391,5241,10347,12246,9196,9127,6159,6496,2264,5579,12634,10918,9507,12773,11493,7205,3095,2471,6213,6030,12005,5205,7458,10454,10742,8719,5572,4995,12187,7693,8000,6666,11057,6025,1674,5441,8159,7980,5396,9126,13256,6027,3805,11377,12103,8928,6858,3457,8160,1364,5655,5752,8501,6082,1898,8840,9030,8429,5180,9262,214,6348,10331,6555,2802,5251,2354,8869,5724,6571,2982,3954,36,594,8991,5509],"class_list":["post-28512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-attack","tag-banned","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-biden","tag-bond","tag-bread","tag-cambridge","tag-campaign","tag-capital","tag-capitol","tag-capitol-hill","tag-civil-war","tag-conflict","tag-congress","tag-crisis","tag-data","tag-declined","tag-died","tag-diplomacy","tag-diplomatic","tag-environment","tag-february","tag-fire","tag-food","tag-government","tag-gulf","tag-health","tag-houthi","tag-immunity","tag-increase","tag-interview","tag-isis","tag-israel","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-kirby","tag-journalist","tag-judge","tag-july","tag-khashoggi","tag-killing","tag-market","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-minor","tag-n","tag-national-security","tag-negotiations","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-obama","tag-offset","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-overthrow","tag-peace","tag-peace-talks","tag-players","tag-pledge","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-price","tag-quincy","tag-rebels","tag-russia","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-security","tag-security-council","tag-senate","tag-senator","tag-special-envoy","tag-strong","tag-success","tag-truce","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-university","tag-us","tag-vermont","tag-veto","tag-vice-president","tag-war","tag-washington","tag-water","tag-weapons","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-will","tag-world","tag-who","tag-yeman","tag-yemen"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52237,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28512\/revisions\/52237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}