United States President Joe Biden issued an order that details requirements for other countries to receive American military assistance, including new human rights conditions.
The Democrat's new directive appeared to ease a split among left-wing lawmakers over his continued military support for Israel's war in Gaza. On Friday, officials praised the order that authorizes a swift cutoff of military aid to countries that violate international protection of civilians.
For the president, the commitment to conditioning U.S. military aid for the Middle Eastern country and other allies and strategic partners will help him shore up support among center-left Senate Democrats. This would be particularly true for his proposed $95 billion supplemental assistance package.
The package is primarily aimed at providing military aid for Ukraine in its continued war against Russia and for Israel in its war against the Hamas terrorist group.
Democratic senators called the president's new directive, which seeks to bring breadth, oversight, deadlines, and teeth to efforts to ensure foreign governments do not use American military aid against civilians, historic, as per the Associated Press.
In a statement, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that the new order is a "sea-change" in terms of how they approach U.S. military aid and its impact on civilians. Her remarks were made at a Capitol news conference with other Democrats who negotiated with the White House for two months on the matter.
Several human rights advocates have argued that the challenge for the new directive would be the same that plagues all previous efforts to withhold U.S. weapons and funding from human rights abusers. This is whether administrations will actually enforce the human rights conditions against strategically important allies and partners.
A former head of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, said that the issue was never knowledge of U.S. military aid being used in violation of international law so much as enforcement. Biden's new order also comes in what is officially known as a presidential memorandum, which has the force of law.
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Israel's War in Gaza
Under the new memo, the secretary of state needs to "obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving defense articles." The Biden administration has sought to downplay the latest decision, noting that while the standards are not new, it marks an opportunity to publicly spell out the existing requirements, according to CNN.
A senior administration official dismissed any suggestion that Israel's military actions in Gaza were a motivating factor in the creation of the memo. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, more than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed while 66,000 others have been injured.
Biden's new policy also requires the State Department and the Department of Defense (DOD) to issue periodic reports on whether or not allies are meeting the requirements.
The memo noted that American departments and agencies will "engage with foreign parties to share and learn best practices for reducing the likelihood of and responding to civilian casualties."
Nations that are receiving military aid from the United States were given 180 days to provide the required assurances. However, those like Israel, who were engaged in active conflicts, were only given 45 days, said the Times of Israel.
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