Yemen: Biden called on to cancel $ 36.5 billion in U.S. military support to warring parties

Dear President Biden,

Thank you for announcing an end to the United States’ ongoing military support and weapons sales for offensive operations in the Saudi- and Emirati-led intervention in Yemen. After six years of the United States directly aiding and abetting this coalition’s devastating and harmful military campaign, an end to this support is a welcome and necessary first step towards peace, and we are eager to support you in this endeavor.

Curtailing U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should not be limited to arbitrary definitions of what equipment and services are “offensive” or “defensive,” but instead should be guided by these countries’ past behavior as required by U.S. and international law, within their borders and in the wider region, particularly regarding respect for human rights and civilian harm. As your administration works to implement this decision and reset the U.S. diplomatic role in the conflict, we, the undersigned organizations and experts, urge you to use this decision as an opportunity to instill much-needed accountability in the U.S. relationships with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Any determination of U.S. military support and arms sales that constitutes “offensive operations” must incorporate long-standing U.S. export controls, the recent history and broad use of U.S. weapons by Saudia Arabia and the UAE, and the consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights by these governments. These monarchies have committed and continue to commit human rights violations, not only domestically—where hundreds of human rights defenders, journalists, academics, and artists languish in jail—but also throughout the region in Yemen, Libya, and beyond. U.S. munitions and other support to the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been used in a consistent pattern of airstrikes against civilians and on civilian areas and civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, markets, weddings, and water wells, including in likely violations of international humanitarian law. There are well-documented reports of mass detention, torture, and targeted assassinations against political opponents by the UAE and allied militias in southern Yemen, as well as the financing of non-state armed groups, including the diversion of U.S. weapons and equipment to affiliates of al-Qaeda, in Yemen and Libya. These are abuses – which disproportionately impact women, children, and Yemeni activists working for peace – many that cannot go unaddressed if the United States wants to be a credible actor for peace in Yemen and Libya, let alone the rest of the region. Moreover, such abuses should inform the provision of any “defensive” support, which should only be supplied in accordance with U.S. and international law.

Any determination must also account for the Houthi, as well as other Yemeni armed groups’ own serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, particularly with respect to the treatment of detainees and the obstruction of humanitarian aid. As the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen recently noted, coalition “air strikes continue to give the Houthis the opportunity to unify the population against their enemies.” Rather than continuing to assist abusive coalition forces, the United States should press the coalition to end their violations by working with counterparts on the UN Security Council to promote tangible accountability mechanisms for all violations committed by all parties during the conflict.

Given Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s consistent disregard for both international and U.S. law, the administration should block all relevant weapons, equipment, training, services, maintenance, and other activities for their current military operations. This should include arms and services—or similar equipment—currently under consideration or previously approved that have likely been misused or implicated in civilian harm or violations of end-use agreements; implicated in enforcing the coalition’s de facto air and sea blockade on Yemen; could open U.S. personnel up to potential liability for violations of international law; or would run afoul of U.S. commitments to international norms, such as those enshrined in the Arms Trade Treaty and the Missile Technology Control Regime. It should also include spare parts and services that are not on the U.S. munitions list (USML) but are critical to conducting “offensive operations,” and permission from the United States for third-parties to re-transfer U.S. origin defense articles.

Based on publicly available information, we have identified $36.5 billion worth of sales, support services, and other assistance to these countries that would meet such “offensive operations” criteria, which have been previously approved by the executive branch since 2017. These include:

Permanently cancelling these transfers is an essential step toward ending the cycle of impunity that U.S. policy has helped create, but it does not on its own constitute peace, healing, or justice for the Yemenis – as well as countless other civilians throughout the region – who have long suffered, in significant part as a result of a virtual blank check of U.S. military support for these countries. To date, there has been no transparent, independent efforts to investigate nor provide reparations for civilian casualties, human rights abuses, and violations of international and domestic law caused by the use of these weapons. Without a full accounting of the harms done and tangible steps towards accountability as a result of the sale and use of these weapons – including a comprehensive moratorium on any military support that is at-risk of misuse – the U.S. cannot be a credible actor for peace.

We are ready to support your administration’s bold commitment to peace in Yemen, and humbly suggest that emerging as an effective diplomatic broker in the midst of this complex conflict requires ending the blank check for impunity that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have enjoyed in Washington. Polling indicates that majorities of Americans across the ideological spectrum will support such a move. Any return to business as usual when it comes to the U.S. relationship with these two countries will be woefully insufficient to meet your own campaign promises or the needs of the Yemeni people at this moment.

Sincerely,

Organizations:

1. Action Corps
2. Action on Armed Violence
3. Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain (ADHRB)
4. Amnesty International USA
5. Bridges Faith Initiative
6. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
7. Campaign Against Arms Trade
8. Center for International Policy
9. CODEPINK
10. Colombian Campaign To Ban Landmines
11. Common Defense
12. Demand Progress
13. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
14. Fellow Travelers Blog
15. Freedom Forward
16. Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
17. Human Rights Watch
18. Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
19. Interfaith Peace Network of WNY
20. Jewish Voices for Peace Action
21. Just Foreign Policy
22. Justice Democrats
23. Knowdrones.com
24. MADRE
25. MoveOn
26. National Iranian American Council Action
27. National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
28. New York Center for Foreign Policy Affairs
29. Our Revolution
30. Pax Christi USA
31. Peace Action
32. Peace Direct
33. Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)
34. Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
35. Saferworld
36. Security Policy Reform Institute (SPRI)
37. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
38. Shadow World Investigations
39. United For Peace and Justice, Administrative Committee
40. United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
41. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)
42. Veterans for Peace
43. Western New York Peace Center
44. Win Without War
45. Working Families Party
46. Yemeni Alliance Committee
47. Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation (YRRF)

Individuals (titles and affiliations of individual signers ​for identification purposes only​):

1. Amed Khan, President, Zaka Khan Foundation
2. Andrew Feinstein, Executive Director, Shadow World Investigations
3. Anna Stavrianaki, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex, UK Annelle Sheline, Research Fellow for the Middle East, Quincy Institute
4. Annie Shiel, Senior Advisor, US Policy & Advocacy, Center for Civilians in Conflict
5. Danny Postel, Assistant Director, Center for International & Area Studies, Northwestern University Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director, Arms Control Association
6. Eli McCarthy PhD, Professor of Justice and Peace Studies, Georgetown University Elizabeth Beavers, peace and security strategist
7. Erik Sperling, Executive Director, Just Foreign Policy Gabriel Mondragón Toledo, Hamburg Universität Gordon Adams, Distinguished Fellow, Quincy Institute Greg Thielmann, Board Member, Arms Control Association
8. Hassan El-Tayyab, Legislative Manager for Middle East Policy, Friends Committee on National Legislation Iain Overton, Author, Executive Director, Action on Armed Violence
9. Jeff Abramson, Senior Fellow, Arms Control Association John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus
10. Johnny Zokovitch, Executive Director, Pax Christi USA
11. Justin Russell, Principal Director, New York Center for Foreign Policy Affairs Kirpatrick Day, former USAID/OTI Country Representative – Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan
12. Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, College of William & Mary Leila Murphy, Steering Committee, Sept. 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
13. Marie Dennis, Senior Advisor, Pax Christi International Medea Benjamin, author and peace activist
14. Mitchell Plitnick, President, ReThinking Foreign Policy Nina Allen, Massachusetts Peace Action
15. Pam Campos-Palma, Director of Peace & Security, Working Families Party Paul Barker, Editor, Advocacy Bulletin, Peace Corps Iran Association Richard Krushnic, Mass Peace Action, Mass Public Banking
16. Sahar Khan, Editor, Inkstick Media
17. Sam Ratner, Editor, Fellow Travelers Blog
18. Sherif Mohyeldeen, Director of the Research and Advocacy Unit at the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)
19. Sunjeev Bery, Executive Director, Freedom Forward
20. Thea Paneth, member, Administrative Committee, United for Peace and Justice Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President, Quincy Institute

CC: Secretary of State Tony Blinken
Special Envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin