{"id":386788,"date":"2018-11-27T17:25:07","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T16:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trumps-saudi-first-foreign-policy-strikes-again\/"},"modified":"2018-11-27T17:25:07","modified_gmt":"2018-11-27T16:25:07","slug":"trumps-saudi-first-foreign-policy-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/trumps-saudi-first-foreign-policy-strikes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Saudi First Foreign Policy Strikes\u00a0Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Originally appeared on The American Conservative<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Trump administration bows<\/a> before the Saudis once more over the war on Yemen:<\/p>\n

The US has \u201cslammed the brakes on\u201d a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia, two sources tell CNN.<\/i><\/p>\n

One source familiar with the negotiations over the resolution tells CNN the US \u201chas slammed the brakes on,\u201d saying that \u201cwe can\u2019t support a resolution at the moment.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

U.S. policy in Yemen has been dictated by Saudi and Emirati preferences for years, but Trump and his administration have taken this disgraceful subservience to new lows since he came to office. Trump\u2019s outrageous Saudi propaganda statement<\/a> from last week confirmed that he would happily lie to defend Saudi Arabia from any and all criticism, and now he is shielding them from international scrutiny and pressure at the U.N. He is not just serving as a Saudi mouthpiece, but acts as their lackey as well.<\/p>\n

The draft resolution doesn\u2019t even call out the Saudis and their allies, and criticizes the Houthis alone:<\/p>\n

The resolution is not at all critical of Saudi Arabia, and in fact compliments Saudi action; it is critical only of the Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran and have been fighting Saudi-led coalition forces while maintaining control of the capital, Sanaa.<\/i><\/p>\n

Because Mohammed bin Salman \u201cthrew a fit\u201d over the resolution, Trump gave in to the crown prince\u2019s wishes yet again.<\/p>\n

The administration is killing whatever momentum there was for a new Security Council resolution, and in doing so they have signaled to the Saudis and Emiratis that there will be no pressure on them from this administration to halt their offensive or end their bombing campaign. Stopping a new resolution at this stage will probably sabotage the efforts of the UN special envoy to organize peace negotiations, and it makes a mockery of the administration\u2019s own calls for a ceasefire by the end of this month. Any move to bring the war to an end is going to anger the Saudis because they don\u2019t want to end the war. Blocking a new resolution at the UN because it would upset Riyadh proves that the administration has no interest in halting the war or bringing the necessary pressure on the Saudi coalition to alleviate the suffering of Yemen\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

Trump inherited the policy of supporting the Saudi coalition in their attack on Yemen, but he has somehow managed to take Obama\u2019s worst policy and make it far worse than it was. Uncritical, reflexive support for Saudi interests and preferences at the expense of everything else, including US interests, has been the defining trait of Trump\u2019s foreign policy in the region. 14 million people in Yemen suffer and may die because he insists on putting Saudi Arabia first. The US shares responsibility for the destruction and starvation of Yemen, and Trump in particular owns this disaster because he has…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally appeared on The American Conservative. The Trump administration bows before the Saudis once more over the war on Yemen: The US has \u201cslammed the brakes on\u201d a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a limited ceasefire and increased humanitarian aid in Yemen over concerns about angering Saudi Arabia, two sources tell CNN. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-386788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}