Biden administration reviewing Trump’s Mideast policies

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration has put a temporary hold on several major foreign arms sales initiated by former President Donald Trump and hinted at resuming nuclear talks with Iran.

Officials say that among the deals being paused is a massive $23 billion transfer of stealth F-35 fighters to the United Arab Emirates. That sale and several other massive purchases of US weaponry by Gulf Arab countries had been harshly criticized by Democrats in Congress. The officials did not identify the other sales that had been temporarily halted.

The new administration is reviewing the sales but has not made any determination about whether they will actually go through, the State Department said. It called the pause “a routine administrative action” that most incoming administrations take with large-scale arms sales.

“The department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending US defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review,” the department said.

“This is a routine administrative action typical to most any transition, and demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to transparency and good governance, as well as ensuring US arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable, and more capable security partners,” it said.

In its waning months, the Trump administration authorized tens of billions of dollars in new arms sales, including announcing plans to send 50 F-35s to the UAE. That announcement came shortly after Trump lost the November 6 election to now-President Joe Biden and followed the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE, under which the Arab states agreed to normalize relations with Israel.

Congressional critics have expressed disapproval with such sales, including a major deal with Saudi Arabia, that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed through after bypassing lawmakers by declaring an emergency required it. The critics have alleged the weapons could be used to prosecute Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, which is the home of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

Less than a month after the November 10 UAE sale was announced, an effort to block the deal fell short in the Senate, which failed to halt it.

Senators argued the sale of the defense equipment had unfolded too quickly and with too many questions. The administration has billed it as a way to deter Iran, but UAE would have become the first Arab nation — and only the second country in the Middle East, after Israel — to possess the stealth warplanes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday stuck to his stance that Tehran must resume complying with the Iran nuclear deal before Washington, which abandoned the pact under former President Donald Trump, would do so.

Making his first public comments on Iran as the chief US diplomat, Blinken reiterated Biden's policy "that if Iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States would do the same thing."

Trump abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, leading Iran to begin violating its terms.

If Iran returns to the deal, Washington would seek to build what Blinken called a "longer and stronger agreement" that would deal with other "deeply problematic" issues.

He did not name these but Biden has said they include Iran's development of ballistic missiles and its support for proxy forces in countries such as Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

"Iran is out of compliance on a number of fronts and it would take some time, should it make the decision to do so, for it to come back into compliance and time for us then to assess whether it was meeting its obligations," Blinken told reporters.

"We are not there yet, to say the least," he added. He declined to say which US official would lead talks with Iran but said "we will bring to bear different perspectives on the issue."

On the Yemeni issue, the new Secretary of State said the State Department was taking a "very urgent and very close look" at the Trump administration designation of Yemen's Huthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization and wants to make sure aid groups can deliver assistance to the country.

Pompeo blacklisted the Iran-aligned Huthis last week - a day before Biden took office.

"It's vitally important even in the midst of this crisis that we do everything we can to get humanitarian assistance to the people of Yemen, who are in desperate need. And what we want to make sure is that any steps we are taking do not get in the way of providing that assistance," Blinken told reporters at his first press briefing after being sworn in.

The United Nations describes Yemen as the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of its people in need.

"We want to make sure that not only are American aid groups able to do what they can to provide assistance, but so are aid groups around the world," Blinken added.