Article published by the Gatestone Institute, 26 January 2022. © Richard Kemp
This week, Ansar Allah (‘Supporters of God’), also known as the Houthis, an Iranian-backed armed militia in Yemen, launched ballistic missiles against civilian targets in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. This followed a missile and drone strike last week that killed three in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.
These are only the latest aerial attacks by Ansar Allah against the two countries, on top of the large-scale violence, deprivation and suffering it has inflicted on the civilian population of Yemen. Despite Ansar Allah’s depredations, almost immediately after he took office US President Joe Biden removed the group’s Foreign Terrorist designation that had been imposed by President Donald Trump.
Following last week’s Abu Dhabi attack, Biden said he will consider reversing the decision. That would be the right move and he should do it immediately.
Before he de-listed Ansar Allah, Biden also ended Obama’s and Trump’s policies of support for Saudi Arabia’s offensive military operations against the group, including arms supplies. Together these steps emboldened Ansar Allah and their Iranian sponsors and reduced Saudi Arabia’s capacity to fight against them.
A US State Department spokesman claimed at the time that the de-listing of Ansar Allah had ‘nothing to do with’ their ‘reprehensible conduct’. So what was it about? Biden claimed the de-listing and cessation of military support to the Saudis would somehow contribute towards ending the conflict. He also suggested it would enable more effective delivery of humanitarian aid to the destitute people of Yemen whom the Ansar Allah have been holding as hostages, and which Ansar Allah had apparently been blocking.
Two other factors undoubtedly influenced Biden’s decision, perhaps even more than what he must have known was a vain hope of conflict resolution.
First, he was already on a spree of reversing any policy with Trump’s fingerprints on it.
Perhaps even more importantly however, was that Biden, desperate to restore Obama’s deeply-flawed nuclear agreement with Iran, may have hoped these concessions would play well in Tehran, given the reality of the ayatollahs’ use of Yemen as a proxy war against Saudi Arabia.
Biden’s moves were a classic example of the failure of appeasement. Continue reading