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Written by Dr. Leon Tressell exclusively for SouthFront
In his first speech on foreign policy President Joe Biden announced that the United States would would end its support for Saudi Arabia’s genocidal war in Yemen. This would include a ban on selling weapons that facilitated ‘offensive operations’ by Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yemen.
However, Biden went on to qualify his comments by stating that the United States would continue to defend the Saudi dictatorship which means that weapons of a ‘defensive’ nature such as Patriot missile systems would continue to be supplied to Riyadh.
If so called US diplomacy fails this comment leaves the door open for the United States to continue supporting the Saudi war effort under the pretext of defending Saudi sovereignty.
Biden has not specified whether US support for Saudi ‘offensive operations’ includes the continued supply of American surveillance such as satellite imagery and other intelligence.
He said nothing about the US taking action to end the air, land and sea blockade of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its allies that is responsible for mass hunger and malnutrition. 80% of the 30 million people in Yemen are on the verge of famine.
According to the World Food Programme over 400,000 children under the age of five are in danger of dying from acute malnutrition this year.
Meanwhile, Blinken, the new Secretary of State, has talked about sanctioning the Houthis which will hamper even further the delivery of emergency food aid to Yemen.
In his first speech on foreign policy Biden went further by declaring that he would step up US diplomacy to bring an end to the conflict and that he had appointed a special envoy to Yemen. Apparently, the pretext for this was the president’s desire to bring an end to the humanitarian catastrophe that is enveloping the people of Yemen.
This is quite ironic considering that Biden and Obama helped bring about the war in the first place when they gave Saudi Arabia the green light to invade Yemen back in 2015. They supplied it with billions of dollars worth of offensive weaponry.
Finally, Biden completely failed to omit from his speech the fact that the United States will continue drone operations in Yemen. Allegedly, these drone operations are part of an ongoing military operation against the threat of Al Qaeda. However, the majority of casualties from American drone strikes as civilians.
Reasons for change in American stance
If you delve beneath the surface of the diplomatic fan fair accompanying Biden’s announcement then it is clear that this change in American policy is motivated primarily by events on the ground in Yemen. Over the last five years the Saudi led coalition of the killing has spent billions of dollars trying to crush the Ansar Allah movement otherwise known as the Houthis and ignominiously failed in its efforts.
The Houthis have not only held onto the capital capital Sanaa and their northern heartlands but taken the fight into the southern regions of Saudi Arabia such as Jizan inflicting severe losses in terms of casualties. Large quantities of Saudi weapons and military equipment have also been captured by the Houthis.
In a recent statement Brigadier General Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the Houthis said that in January alone the Saudi led coalition had suffered 1283 casualties along with the destruction/damage of 92 armoured and military vehicles. Many will dismiss this as Houthi propaganda.
Yet the Houthis regularly put out videos showing footage of battles on different fronts of the war showing the capture of large amounts of Saudi coalition weaponry and the destruction of large numbers of armoured personnel carriers and other military vehicles. Besides this, the videos reveal how the Houthis have captured large numbers of soldiers from the Saudi led coalition, many of whom mercenaries.
We should also recognise that there are other factors that have influenced Biden’s decision to change American policy towards the war in Yemen. Undoubtedly, the sustained efforts of anti-war activists in the United States and around the world have had some impact on both public opinion and the Democratic Party.
Only a week before Biden’s first speech on foreign policy anti-war activists and union workers in Ontario blocked trucks shipping armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia. Countless other protests of a similar nature to this have helped build up a groundswell of opposition to the Yemen war.
The change in American policy towards the Yemeni conflict is also influenced by geopolitical concerns. The American Empire recognises the negative impact of the Yemeni war upon its allies in the Gulf region. In 2017 Qatar withdrew its support for the Saudi led war which led to Saudi Arabia imposing a blockade upon Doha. Qatar then was free to more fully pursue its own dependent foreign policy which included restoring some trade relations with Iran and moving firmly into the orbit of Turkey.
Of course, the United States also saw the danger to its own position in the Middle East when its bloc of allies amongst the Gulf dictatorships were now squabbling and threatening each other.
It is clear that the Biden administration wishes to force Iran to the negotiating table and force it to cease its nuclear programme under even more restrictions than the Obama nuclear deal of 2015. To achieve this, Biden needs all of his allies in the Middle East to be unified under American direction.
It is also clear that the Biden regime seeks to impose an end to the Yemeni war on its terms, to meet the geopolitical and economic interests of itself and its Gulf allies.
According to the US Energy Information Adminstration (EIA) the oil reserves of Yemen amount to 3 billion barrels and its gas reserves amount to 6.9 trillion cubic feet.
The United States and Saudi Arabia also see Yemen’s strategic location as a means of bypassing the choke point that is the strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia has built several pipelines that bypass the straight of Hormuz which take oil to the Red Sea which can then be shipped to China and other important Asian markets.
However, the Bab El-Mandeb Strait is a narrow choke point. It is located between Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea, and it connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.
We shouldn’t forget that the Trump regime’s recent classification of the Houthis as a terrorist organisation came after Ansar Allah forces attacked Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
Besides the oil and gas angle the United States and the Gulf dictatorships are also fully aware of the vast mineral resources of Yemen which include gold, silver, copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel.
According to the World Atlas Yemen has large industrial mineral deposits of limestone, magnesite, scoria, sandstone, gypsum, marble, perlite, dolomite, feldspar, and Celestine. Yemen also contains the most fertile land in the Arabian peninsula which contrasts sharply with Saudi Arabia which is heavily dependent on food imports for its growing population.
Over the next period the United States and it’s allies both in Europe and Middle East will seek to exert huge pressure upon the Houthis to come to the negotiating table to bring the conflict to an end. Let us be very clear that this so-called peace initiative will be on American terms. The American Empire will not countenance any peace deal that is favourable to the Houthi resistance.
Ansar Allah has responded with defiance to Biden’s so-called peace overture. Mohammed Al al-Houthi on behalf of the Yemen Supreme Political Council said:
“We consider any move that does not end the siege and aggression against Yemen is just a formality and do not pay any attention to it….”
He further added that if the US was serious about bringing an end to the conflict it must take concrete action to bring justice for the people of Yemen:
“Washington’s allies must also commit themselves to compensate victims, enact a package of measures to guarantee the sovereignty of Yemen, recognise its independence and legitimate rights of defence, and consider any military action either by Arab or foreign states is a criminal act.”
Since Biden’s first foreign policy speech called for an end to the war Saudi Arabia and its allies have continued the aerial bombardment of Yemeni civilians and maintained their starvation blockade around the country.
Not surprisingly, faced with this war of annihilation against the Yemeni people the Houthi resistance has continued to take the fight to the Saudi led coalition.
It seems unlikely that the Houthis will buckle under international pressure over the next period and capitulate to the demands of American imperialism and stand their forces down.
If the Ansar Allah forces continue striking Saudi oil and military infrastructure then it cannot be ruled out that Biden may discard his diplomatic efforts and formally resume American support for the Saudis genocidal war. After all, the American Empire is a rather vengeful beast and does not take kindly to those who continue to show resistance to its will.
Houthis should disregard any American overtures, and continue doing what they successfully had been doing for years. They can counterpunch S. Arabian military, economic and civilian targets. As time goes on, their qualitative and numerical edge in weaponry will become more and more pronounced.
US is a historical liar and totally deceitful and all of this sudden interest in Yemen peace has more to do with Saudis inability to fight their way out of a paper bag, than concern for Yemeni women and children facing genocide with US and NATO weapons.
True.
The Hadi Government and the Southern separatists control like 80% of the country and not to forget. The Saudi said just today that they will continue to treat the Houthis as terrorist entities.
The civil war in Yemen is bound to go on for ages.
1. You can’t just wish away the Hadi Government and the southern separatists who hold majority of the country and stronger then the Houthis.
2. The more the Houthis escalate it will only brings them closer to annilation due to geolocation but aside from that the Hadi, southern separatists and their foreign allies have taken over the narrative and have advantages in both the negotiation and the military front. The houthis are tired and fatigued with no food
idiot 80%…… yeah and from these 80% , 75% is total remote desert
the houthis control 80% of the part of jemen that counts, and if Marib falls in the coming 4 weeks, the houthis will control the entire northern part of yemen including its oil resources…………..
in the south, the saudi scum are being margenalized by the UAE backed southern council, which will only make things even worse for the saudis once marib falls……
your total bs quote dude “The more the Houthis escalate it will only brings them closer to annilation due to geolocation but aside from that the………”
it is rather the other way around…..the houthis are kicking major saudi ass…… # so keep your child killing jew bs for your selve, you son of a jewish dirty satanic whore
Taiz, Mar’ib, the coastline strip plus half of the hodeidah city is in Government hands. These are big population centers. Just Taiz alone has almost 2.6mio people it is big city. Not to add the other population center like Aden, Abyan etc etc.
The population center is half-half but the majority of the land is controlled by the Government.
You can try to make cover this or that.
But the Saudi said just today we will target the houthis as terrorists. The Yemeni gov’t and Co know the Houthis are fatigued this shxt will never end. It was the wrong door they opened.
The opposition will see this as halal jihad prolonging this until entirety
Bitch saudi dog stfu pakistani inbred @sshole.
Your point’s were invalid when they were first stated 15 years ago. None of your rantings have ever come to pass, despite the West’s best efforts, and the Headcutters money to starve the population to death. What we have seen is the Houthis resistance evolve from fighters running round the desert in flip-flops kicking the living shit out of the Headcutters mercenaries despite overwhelming airpower to an organized, trained, uniformed military force with advanced military technology, and capabilities advancing against the Headcutters proxies, and really kicking the shit out those that haven’t smartened up, and got the Hell out of the country they should have never attacked in the first place. The Houthis have always sought a “diplomatic way out of this,” the West doesn’t want a diplomatic solution, it wants to steal Yemen’s resources, and kill the population. A diplomatic solution will force the West to stop it’s attempt to reach these objectives, and that is unacceptable to the Cabal. The Houthis, will continue to kick the shit out of the criminals until they are unable to prosecute their illegal war. In other words, you’re criminal hero’s are losing, will keep losing, and no amount of pitiful trolling is going to change that.
1. You can’t just wish away the Hadi Government and the southern separatists who hold majority of the country and stronger then the Houthis.
First of all, it’s Saudi Arabia and their paid puppet Hadi government. Hadi and his ‘government’ wouldn’t last a week if the Saudis weren’t bankrolling him – no ‘wishing’ necessary.
Second, it’s the UAE and their paid mercenaries, the STC. The STC could probably hold out for a month without UAE backing, but that’s just because the roads are bad and Houthis are terrible drivers. I doubt that either the Houthis or STC would want to keep fighting anyway if the Saudis and UAE were out of the picture and the Hadi government was gone. The north/south Yemen thing was always due to foreign meddling.
Third, the Hadi ‘government’ and the STC are not allies – they hate each other. The Hadi ‘government’ will cease to exist when the Houthis take their remaining power center of Marib. The STC will finish off any remaining Hadi loyalist presence in Aden, but that only gives the STC a failing port and an impoverished south Yemen. STC rules a corrupt, shithole-ized foreign-dependent welfare state with no resources, agriculture or industry. They are way more dependent on Sana’a and Marib than the north is dependent on Aden.
The more the Houthis escalate it will only brings them closer to annilation
Yeah, they’ve been hearing that same crap from various foreigners for 7000 years. The Houthis are still there in the same mountains. The foreigners? Not so much.
The houthis are tired and fatigued with no food.
Do Houthis look like they eat much food? As long as there’s a little khat and some hot tea, the Houthis will be defending their homes and the mountains.
but the other side know this that the houthis are tired and seeking diplomatic way out of this
The Houthi have always been recognized as negotiators among the other tribes in Yemen. They’re trusted. They will always use diplomacy first. In fact, that’s how they’re slowly taking back Marib city – by flipping the local Hadi-supporting tribes to remain neutral and let the Houthis come in and take care of business. If that doesn’t work, then the Houthis employ the other thing they’re best known for: taking your head off with a Mosin-Nagant at 600 yds. with iron sights. Scopes are for shoe-wearing pussies (or Saudis – same thing).
Its just a game to try to make it appear that it is the Houthis who don’t want peace. Peace on the terms of the empire is the peace of the Cemetery. Basically unconditional surrender lay down and die. Maybe the empire thinks it can bribe the Houthi and Iranian leaders to sell out their pwn people like the Kurdish and Armenian leaders have. In the end the sellouts will all end up dead like Sadam Hussein, Gaddafi etc.
It will. Sadam was offered peace if he pulled back his troops unarmed from Kuwait. The Iraqi unarmed troops were massacred on their way back by US airfighters.
The US can say and want, what it wants but, it just does not have the bandwidth to do much anymore. It cannot go head on with everybody, when everybody is going head on with it. Yemen will be on fire next year and the year after, with no end in sight. The houthis will have gained more ground …. and more gear from the Saudis. A lot of posturing will have made it´s appearances but, nothing positive for the KSA will have actually manifested. My take folks.
Lmao! This is delusional. We will more likely see people crying from the EU saying ” Saudi arabia commited genocide” Mamama! braaaah baaah!
Troll farm English at world Lmao!
What are you saying?
I’m not sure the Houthis want any more gear from the Saudis. They’re already running out of parking space for all the burnt-out Saudi MRAPs and the Yemeni scrap dealers are full. At this point, the Houthis would be better off taking over Jizan so they can tow all that crap back up to Saudi territory and dump it there where it belongs.
Because Pentagon is a peace organisation for freedom.
I’m nominating those freedomizing bastards for the Nobel Peace Prize. [sniff!] Has anybody ever deserved it more? No! …and sainthood – they deserve that, too. And automatic Israeli citizenship because they’ll need that when we revoke those f’king traitors’ U.S. citizenship and deport them to their home country. I’m sure there will be a nice parade for them in Tel Aviv. Yay! Thanks for your service.
We will show you Americans Wahhabis and other pest how our domestic medicine works.