[ad_1]
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who took office two weeks ago, went together to the State Department to demonstrate a renewed attention to diplomacy after four tumultuous years under Trump.
America is back. Diplomacy is back, “Biden told the diplomatic audience, where the rules of social distance were observed.
Speaking briefly in Benjamin Franklin’s ornate living room, Biden announced that the United States would end all support for its ally in the Saudi war in Yemen with Iranian-backed Hussite insurgents, including the sale of advanced weapons.
According to Biden, this war “caused a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe.”
The president appointed U.S. special envoy to Yemen, veteran diplomat Timothy Lenderking, to support United Nations efforts to achieve a ceasefire and reignite peace talks between the government and the Hussite rebels who control much of the country. country, including the capital, Sana’a.
The United States will seek “to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the people of Yemen who are suffering unbearable devastation,” Biden said.
“This war must end,” he said.
Activists have pushed for an end to US support for the war in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population depends on aid for the lingering humanitarian crisis, which the United Nations considers the largest in the world.
Trump offered the Riyadh-led coalition US logistical support and a host of advanced weaponry, such as precision-aimed aviation bombs, claiming that Saudi Arabia is creating jobs in the US defense sector.
Trump also saw the war as a way to take action against Iran, an ally of Hussus that the previous US administration viewed as an incompatible enemy.
Biden supports a return to diplomacy and a deal with Iran on its nuclear program, but only indirectly mentioned Tehran in his speech on foreign policy priorities.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he will soon reconsider Trump’s last-minute decision to declare the Hussites a terrorist organization that aid groups say vitally criminalizes vital humanitarian work.
In Yemen, senior politician Hamid Assem has expressed hope that Biden’s plan will mark the end of a six-year war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
“The Biden administration has seen that the war in Yemen is costly and that America’s reputation is being tarnished by the murder of the Yemeni people,” he told AFP.
[ad_2]
