Policymakers can start by ending military support and weapons for the Saudi-led war in Yemen and pushing for a diplomatic end to the conflict and humanitarian crisis. Congress and the Biden administration should now take immediate steps along this path and adopt a more neutral posture across the Middle East if it wants to stay relevant in this new moment. It may also pave the way for resolutions to other areas of dispute. The new Iran-Saudi agreement, however, creates new openings for diplomacy alongside regional stakeholders to put Iran's nuclear program back in the box peacefully. President Joe Biden with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in July 2022.įormer President Donald Trump's move away from engagement through his catastrophic withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and "maximum pressure" campaign have accelerated volatility in the Middle East and unleashed Iran's nuclear enrichment program, which is inching dangerously close to weapons-grade. Continued US diplomatic engagement is needed to keep these fragile negotiations on track. These include the opening of Hodeidah port to commercial cargo, a prisoner swap agreement between the warring parties, reports of Iran stopping weapons shipments to the Houthis, and no new cross-border airstrikes or drone attacks. There have been some positive signs for diplomacy in Yemen since the Saudi-Iran deal was announced. The conflict has created a massive humanitarian crisis and regional instability, has put at risk the lives of tens of thousands of US troops and civilians in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, led to a rise in recruitment by extremist groups like Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula, and badly damaged America's international reputation. And it's critical to US interests that this war ends. Gifting the Saudis with more military support risks backsliding on the Yemen peace talks and seriously impeding the negotiated solution that is imperative to ending the war. The Saudis and their backers in the US have made no secret that extending blanket concessions, including formal American security guarantees, is the only way to bring the Kingdom firmly back into the Western fold and advance Israel's formal integration in the region.īut we shouldn't take the bait, especially when the Kingdom continually subverts US interests by manipulating the global energy market and when the prospects for peaceful resolutions to long standing conflicts are growing. ![]() ![]() This agreement is both a wakeup call and an opportunity to address urgent priorities, including ending the Yemen war and curbing Iran's nuclear program - both of which can only be resolved through diplomacy.įorensic experts at a the site of a funeral that was struck Saudi-led warplanes in Sanaa, Yemen in October 2016. But the way to compete in this new arena is through robust diplomatic engagement. A more stable region with reduced Saudi-Iran hostilities benefits everyone, including the US.Ĭhina is presenting a different vision for the region and it is incumbent upon the US to respond. But this deal need not be the catastrophe these critics make it out to be. Predictably, some US officials and commentators have declared China's breakthrough as an urgent threat to American interests, arguing that the Biden administration's strategic misfires have opened the door to greater Chinese influence. In contrast, the US has for years taken sides and militarily intervened in almost every regional conflict, including in Yemen, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq and is far and away the region's largest weapons dealer. However, the recent agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered with the help of Chinese mediation, challenges long-standing assumptions about the US role there and signifies an entirely new shift in China's approach to the region.īy mediating the Saudi-Iran deal, China has demonstrated its ability to play a constructive role in resolving conflicts impartially rather than relying on arms sales to keep nations in its corner, as the US has done for years. ![]() It often indicates a user profile.įor decades, the United States has been viewed as the indispensable nation in the Middle East. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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