The day before the government announced its decision on Saudi Arabia, Biden gave the first major indication from his presidency that he would be willing to use military force in the Middle East if he considered it justified. He ordered retaliatory air strikes against Iran-backed fighters in Syria, showing his willingness to maintain a tit-for-tat military presence in the Middle East while Iran continues to support an anti-US militia web across the region.
In response to the attacks – which allegedly killed at least one fighter from the Kataib Hezbollah militia, an Iranian-backed group that is also part of the official security forces of the Iraqi government – Iran declined a third party invitation to join the United States in negotiations diplomatic.
In the campaign, Biden pledged to re-establish the nuclear deal with Iran signed by his former chief, President Barack Obama, and highlighted his track record as an opponent of Obama’s intervention in Libya and the increase in troops in Afghanistan. (Biden also opposed the risky mission that took away Osama bin Laden, although he was less quick to boast about it.)
When he took office, one of Biden’s first steps was to announce that he would end “all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including the sale of relevant weapons”. It was largely seen as a preventive measure, as Congress would likely reintroduce a bill that Trump vetoed by cutting arms sales to support the war in Yemen. But it also reflected pressure from within his party – and from many Republicans who supported Trump – to turn the page on American intervention.
‘Wars forever’
Still, Biden surrounded himself with veterans of the Democratic foreign policy establishment in Washington, raising concerns among some critics of his party that he will return to the kind of moderate interventionist approach that defined Obama’s mandate.
Weeks before his inauguration, several progressive groups sent him a list of 100 staff recommendations, as they worried about their choices in foreign policy. Critics pointed to the prevalence of former Obama administration employees linked to the arms industry during their years outside the public service.
Biden said he wants to “end the eternal wars” and always talks about his experience as the father of a military man seconded to Iraq (his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015). But Biden is now seen as highly unlikely to deliver on a campaign pledge to remove all US troops from Afghanistan by May 1, in what will be a crucial test of his commitment to non-intervention – in a situation where the results may be bad anyway. This can also be explained by his desire to focus on domestic politics, said Parsi, calling it a path of least resistance.