HRW Criticizes Biden for Weak Defence of Human Rights in Middle East

Date: 15 January 2022 - 21:38

News ID: ۹۸۸۸۳

LONDON (Middle East Eye) –
Human Rights Watch has criticized U.S. President Joe Biden and other western leaders over their “weak” defenses of democracy and human rights, saying their continued support of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the Zionist regime contradicted their stated foreign policy goals.
While Biden has had a completely different approach to his predecessor, Donald Trump, who was described by HRW executive director Kenneth Roth as having an “embrace of friendly autocrats”, the rights group said that the current administration continued weapons sales to repressive governments and remained reserved on certain human rights violations.
“Biden took office promising a foreign policy that would be guided by human rights. But he continued to sell arms to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel despite their persistent repression,” HRW said in its annual World Report.
“During key summits, Biden seemed to lose his voice when it came to public denunciation of serious human rights violations.”
Before being elected president, Biden vowed to make the Saudi kingdom “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are”. He also referred to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, saying there would be “no more blank checks for Trump’s ‘favorite dictator’”.
The administration has announced an end to offensive support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen, however, it has continued to support the kingdom with hundreds of millions of dollars in arms sales.
Washington placed conditions on some aid to Egypt, however, rights groups have criticized the move saying it was not nearly enough to stop the Egyptian government’s rights abuses. Biden also pushed forward with arms sales to Egypt at times when Cairo was arresting the family members of a prominent Egyptian-American activist.
The report added that Biden administration has continued to oppose the International Criminal Court’s investigation into the actions of the U.S. in Afghanistan and the actions of the Zionist regime in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The rights group has for years accused a number of countries, namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, of violating human rights and cracking down on civil society groups, activists, and political dissidents.