Biden's Colossal Failure on Iran: Redesignate the Houthis a Foreign Terrorist Organization
Pete Hoekstra | January 22, 2022 | 1:00 pmA recent drone and missile attack by Iranian-backed Houthis rebels on Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, has laid-bare the ongoing failures of the Biden administration's approach to Iran and foreign policy in general. The attack, which was deliberately aimed at civilian instead of military targets, shows the limits of appeasement and diplomacy in a region where Iran, figuratively and literally, tries to call-the-shots for and against its neighbors.
Think back to the week of February 13, 2021, roughly four weeks after the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States. For the Middle East, this week marked a clear signal that American foreign policy was headed in a new direction. Diplomacy with Iran would now consist of "hedging geopolitical bets" to see if toxic nations in the region could be "diplomatically" persuaded or cajoled or possibly bribed to refrain from malign activities in the region – if not forever, at least not on current president's watch. The theory seems to be that to strengthen ties between brutal theocratic tyrannies -- Iran has been identified by the US Department of State as "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism" -- and the United States. There seems to be minimal awareness, if any, that brutal tyrannies are likely to accept whatever is offered and keep on doing exactly what the offer was designed to prevent. US Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, for instance, offered $5 billion to North Korea not to build a nuclear program; North Korea took the $5 billion and used it to build its nuclear program.
Currently Iran boasts control of four Arab capitols: Damascus in Syria, Beirut in Lebanon, Baghdad in Iraq and Sana'a in Yemen. In addition, Iran has aggressively meddled in the internal affairs of Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain.
The Abraham Accords, the most successful diplomatic initiative in the Middle East in the last 40 years, was moved to the background, and the administration would make little effort, if any, to expand it to more countries. Eleven months later, this change in emphasis may prove to have even more devastating, long-term strategic consequences than Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Among the self-inflicted disasters that happened during this critical week of February 12, 2021,
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken formally revoked the designation of the Iranian-backed Houthis as a Specially Designated Terrorist Group. Later the same week, the Biden administration announced that, "The United States would accept an invitation from the European Union High Representative to attend a meeting ... to discuss a diplomatic way forward on Iran's nuclear program." . . .
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18160/biden-colossal-failure-on-iran-redesignate
Another great big FU to the UAE (and to Israel) from the Biden coup.
