{"id":5284,"date":"2021-06-01T16:27:46","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T16:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5284"},"modified":"2021-06-01T16:27:46","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T16:27:46","slug":"the-us-may-still-be-helping-saudi-arabia-in-the-yemen-war-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5284","title":{"rendered":"The US may still be helping Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war after all"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“In February, President Joe Biden<\/a> announced that he was ending America\u2019s \u201coffensive\u201d support for Saudi Arabia\u2019s war in Yemen, six years into the conflict that has killed around 230,000 people<\/a> and triggered the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the US role would be limited to \u201cdefensive\u201d operations \u201cto support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s just one problem: The line between \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cdefensive\u201d support is murky, and critics argue even the limited support the US is providing still helps Riyadh carry out its offensive bombing campaign in Yemen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Biden\u2019s policy sounds straightforward enough. For the past few months, the US made a clean break and no longer provides assistance to Riyadh\u2019s ongoing strikes inside Yemen<\/a>, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not quite. That\u2019s because the \u201cdefensive\u201d support the US is still providing includes greenlighting the servicing of Saudi aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple US defense officials and experts acknowledged that, through a US government process, the Saudi government pays commercial contractors to maintain and service their aircraft, and those contractors keep Saudi warplanes in the air. What the Saudis do with those fighter jets, however, is up to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US could cancel those contracts at any time, thus effectively grounding the Saudi Air Force, but doing so would risk losing Riyadh as a key regional partner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Riyadh, with its own money and at no cost to the US taxpayer<\/a>, uses a US government program to procure maintenance for its warplanes. (That service likely was included when the Saudis bought the American-made warplanes.) It may not be the US military providing direct support, then, but the service was still greenlit by the US.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Saudi Arabia doesn\u2019t have an Offensive Air Force and a Defensive Air Force. It just has the one aerial service that the US supports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the offensive part is relatively straightforward: The Saudis find a Houthi target inside Yemen they want to hit, and they bomb it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it gets more complicated when you consider what \u201cdefensive\u201d might mean. As the Houthis continue to launch missile and drone attacks inside Saudi Arabia<\/a>, Riyadh might decide to strike a few of the Houthis\u2019 launch points to dissuade further assaults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would such a move be defensive or offensive? It\u2019s unclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is clear is that without the US-approved maintenance of Saudi fighters, Riyadh wouldn\u2019t really have the option of launching such retaliatory responses<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019d be able to fly two out of every 10 aircraft,\u201d said Des Roches. That would give the Houthis an edge in the ongoing fight.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“it seems likely that US-authorized contractors maintaining Saudi warplanes are indirectly involved in helping the Saudis carry out \u201coffensive\u201d operations, however one defines them. \u201cIf we\u2019re servicing the planes that are fighting the war, we\u2019re still supporting the war,\u201d said the Democratic congressional aide. That the contract remains in place, after all, is a policy decision. The US could also decide to maintain other equipment and provide training instead of keeping Saudi aircraft in the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 But it\u2019s also true that without the maintenance support, Saudi Arabia would be further exposed to all kinds of attacks from the Houthis (and others). And after nixing the contract, the decades-old ties between Washington and Riyadh might not just spiral downward but sever entirely.”  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/4\/27\/22403579\/biden-saudi-yemen-war-pentagon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In February, President Joe Biden announced that he was ending America\u2019s \u201coffensive\u201d support for Saudi Arabia\u2019s war in Yemen, six years into the conflict that has killed around 230,000 people and triggered the world\u2019s worst humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n

Instead, the US role would be limited to \u201cdefensive\u201d operations \u201cto support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem: The line between \u201coffensive\u201d and \u201cdefensive\u201d support is murky, and critics argue even the limited support the US is providing still helps Riyadh carry out its offensive bombing campaign in Yemen.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Biden\u2019s policy sounds straightforward enough. For the past few months, the US made a clean break and no longer provides assistance to Riyadh\u2019s ongoing strikes inside Yemen, right?<\/p>\n

Not quite. That\u2019s because the \u201cdefensive\u201d support the US is still providing includes greenlighting the servicing of Saudi aircraft.<\/p>\n

Multiple US defense officials and experts acknowledged that, through a US government process, the Saudi government pays commercial contractors to maintain and service their aircraft, and those contractors keep Saudi warplanes in the air. What the Saudis do with those fighter jets, however, is up to them.<\/p>\n

The US could cancel those contracts at any time, thus effectively grounding the Saudi Air Force, but doing so would risk losing Riyadh as a key regional partner.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Riyadh, with its own money and at no cost to the US taxpayer, uses a US government program to procure maintenance for its warplanes. (That service likely was included when the Saudis bought the American-made warplanes.) It may not be the US military providing direct support, then, but the service was still greenlit by the US.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Saudi Arabia doesn\u2019t have an Offensive Air Force and a Defensive Air Force. It just has the one aerial service that the US supports.<\/p>\n

Still, the offensive part is relatively straightforward: The Saudis find a Houthi target inside Yemen they want to hit, and they bomb it.<\/p>\n

But it gets more complicated when you consider what \u201cdefensive\u201d might mean. As the Houthis continue to launch missile and drone attacks inside Saudi Arabia, Riyadh might decide to strike a few of the Houthis\u2019 launch points to dissuade further assaults.<\/p>\n

Would such a move be defensive or offensive? It\u2019s unclear.<\/p>\n

What is clear is that without the US-approved maintenance of Saudi fighters, Riyadh wouldn\u2019t really have the option of launching such retaliatory responses. \u201cThey\u2019d be able to fly two out of every 10 aircraft,\u201d said Des Roches. That would give the Houthis an edge in the ongoing fight.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“it seems likely that US-authorized contractors maintaining Saudi warplanes are indirectly involved in helping the Saudis carry out \u201coffensive\u201d operations, however one defines them. \u201cIf we\u2019re servicing the planes that are fighting the war, we\u2019re still supporting the war,\u201d said the Democratic congressional aide. That the contract remains in place, after all, is a policy decision. The US could also decide to maintain other equipment and provide training instead of keeping Saudi aircraft in the sky.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also true that without the maintenance support, Saudi Arabia would be further exposed to all kinds of attacks from the Houthis (and others). And after nixing the contract, the decades-old ties between Washington and Riyadh might not just spiral downward but sever entirely.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[552,390,272,355,314,780,259,575,619,158,1151],"class_list":["post-5284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-conflict","tag-diplomacy","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-foreign-policy","tag-international-relations","tag-joe-biden","tag-military","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-united-states","tag-war","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5285,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions\/5285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}