Biden to announce end of US support for military operations in Yemen

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The Biden administration plans to announce “an end to American support for offensive operations in Yemen” on Thursday, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, making good on a pledge from the campaign trail.

Saudi Arabian military operations in the country, supported by the US, have created what many humanitarian organizations have dubbed “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” with mass starvation, civilian deaths, and disease outbreaks.

The president is also expected to announce the appointment of a special envoy for the Yemen conflict, Timothy Lenderking, a career diplomat with experience in Gulf affairs.

Tens of thousands of civilians have died in the nearly six-year conflict in the poorest Arab country between the Houthis, a rebel group that controls much of the countryside, and a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognized government in Aden. 

The US has supplied weapons, training, intelligence, and advice to the coalition throughout the war effort, which has killed more than 127,000 people  and displaced an estimated 4 million.

Prior to the announcement, the Biden administration took other steps that could change the dynamics of the conflict, such as temporarily freezing arms sales to the Saudis and considering whether to rescind the Trump administration’s decision to consider the Houthis, who get military aid from Iran, a foreign terrorist group.

The civil war began in 2014, when the Houthi, a Shiite group with a history of conflict with the Sunni government, took control of the capitol Sana’a, demanding lower fuel prices and a new government. In 2015, following failed peace negotiations, the group seized the presidential palace and President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned.

Regional powers on opposite sides of the Sunni-Shia divide, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, soon intervened, turning the conflict from a civil war into a proxy one.

US officials have argued their involvement was necessary to prevent the coalition of Gulf partners from causing unnecessary civilian deaths, as well as to limit Iran’s regional influence.  

Since then, as the New York Times reported in September, US officials across two administrations have worried that selling arms to these nations could constitute war crimes because of their pattern of use on civilians. 

There haven’t been United Nations-backed peace talks in the conflict in several years, and the Houthis rejected a truce observed by the Saudis last year.

During the Trump administration, Congress voted to end its support for Saudi Arabia’s operations in Yemen, but Mr Trump vetoed the resolution. In 2019, he asserted rarely used emergency powers to sidestep congressional objections and give the green light to an arms deal involving Saudi Arabia and the UAE worth $8bn.

The civil war wasn’t the beginning of US involvement in the country though. It has collaborated with the Yemeni government on fighting terrorism since the USS Cole bombing in Aden in 2000, carrying out hundreds of drone strikes and special forces operations targeting Al Qaeda. The attacks also killed civilians, and in January relatives of at least 34 Yemenis killed in American strikes and special forces operations asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to investigate whether the deaths were unlawful.