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
Since 2015, the US has supported the Saudi-led coalition\u2019s fight against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Until November 2018, that support included refueling Saudi warplanes that dropped bombs on Yemen \u2014 many of which killed civilians, including children. The Trump administration ended that practice after increased pressure from activists and lawmakers about Riyadh\u2019s brutal conduct in the conflict.<\/p>\n
But the US continued to provide logistical and intelligence support for the Saudi war effort and planned to sell billions in advanced weapons like precision-guided missiles to the Saudis.<\/p>\n
With Biden\u2019s new policy, the US would stop all of the above and solely help Saudi Arabia defend its territory against threats from the Houthis and elsewhere. As an example of the danger Riyadh faces, a Pentagon spokesperson told reporters that the Saudis have suffered over 100 cross-border air attacks with missiles and drones since January.<\/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
The reality of the situation, then, is squishy enough that the administration says it\u2019s following Biden\u2019s directive and securing its interests in the Middle East, while critics say that Biden\u2019s team is indirectly supporting the Saudi-led coalition\u2019s offensive operations inside Yemen.<\/p>\n
The issue isn\u2019t really a he-said\/she-said or who\u2019s right and who\u2019s wrong. It\u2019s a question of how you look at the entirety of America\u2019s role in the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a definitional and kind of theological argument,\u201d said David DesRoches, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, a Pentagon-funded school.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration finally clarified its support of Saudi\u2019s military<\/p>\n
It took a long time to get a straight answer as to how, exactly, the US was assisting Saudi Arabia after Biden\u2019s February announcement.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee asked Tim Lenderking, the State Department\u2019s special envoy for Yemen, last Wednesday about the new policy. His response was wanting. He said he was \u201cnot totally in the loop\u201d and that the panel should ask the Pentagon for specifics.<\/p>\n
A reporter the next day asked Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, who oversees all US troops in the Middle East, to provide some clarity. He responded that, when possible, the US military provides the Saudis with warning of any incoming attacks on Saudi Arabia that the US has detected coming from Yemen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe principal thing I do with the Saudis is I give them advanced notice when I\u2019m able to do that,\u201d he said, adding that the US provides no intelligence, surveillance, or reconnaissance support inside Yemen. \u201cI would characterize our support as essentially defensive in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
I wanted to know specifically whether the US provides any maintenance, logistical, or refueling support for Saudi warplanes, so on Friday, I asked chief Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby those questions during a regular briefing. His staff got back to me with an answer over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States continues to provide maintenance support to Saudi Arabia\u2019s Air Force given the critical role it plays in Saudi air defense and our longstanding security partnership,\u201d said Navy Commander Jessica McNulty, a Pentagon spokesperson.<\/p>\n
While more specific than the administration had been to date, that statement still wasn\u2019t entirely clear. Was the US military directly providing that support? And did the maintenance go to Saudi fighter jets, its missile defense system, or both?<\/p>\n
So I asked McNulty to clarify her statement, which she did on Monday in an email. \u201c[The] Department of Defense supports Saudi aircraft maintenance through Foreign Military Sales to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for which Saudi Arabia bears the costs and implementation is conducted by DoD contractors,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n
That means 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
This doesn\u2019t please critics of the war and America\u2019s role in it. A Democratic congressional aide complained, \u201cOh, great, the \u2018they\u2019re civilian contractors\u2019 line,\u201d adding that a US-approved service to provide maintenance and spare parts for Saudi aircraft is tantamount to America backing Riyadh\u2019s offensive plans. <\/p>\n
Others agreed. \u201cThe recent admission by the Department of Defense that US companies are still authorized to maintain Saudi warplanes … means that our government is still enabling the Saudi operations, including bombings and enforcing a blockade on Yemen\u2019s ports,\u201d Hassan El-Tayyab, the legislative manager for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation lobbying group, told me. \u201cThe administration should use its existing authority to block US military contractors from aiding the Saudi war effort in Yemen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later on Monday, I asked Kirby, the top Pentagon spokesperson, to address those concerns. <\/p>\n