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Senator Risch to Asharq Al-Awsat: Biden Should Strengthen Partnerships to Confront Iranian Threats

Jim E Risch, US Senator for Idaho
Jim E Risch, US Senator for Idaho
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Senator Risch to Asharq Al-Awsat: Biden Should Strengthen Partnerships to Confront Iranian Threats

Jim E Risch, US Senator for Idaho
Jim E Risch, US Senator for Idaho

Prominent US congress members have welcomed President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East. Wide criticism leveled against the Biden administration for its dealing with the Iranian file turned into calls for fixing strained relations with the region’s countries.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, senior Republican in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jim Risch considered that Biden has a serious shortfall in his credibility, a matter which must be fixed with US partners in the Middle East.

Citing the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the promoted transition to the Indo-Pacific, the hardline policies of arms sales, and the policy with Iran that threaten the security of Washington’s partners, Risch said that Biden must reassure the region that the US will remain a reliable partner.

Risch warned that if Biden fails to do so, he risks losing the region to Russia and China.

The senator also criticized the current administration's performance, explaining that many domestic partners believe that the president’s political capital is deteriorating rapidly, and they are anxiously awaiting the next administration.

Risch voiced his fears that Biden’s visit to the Middle could be late.

According to Risch, the administration has finally begun to change course about some of its harmful policies in the Middle East, especially with regard to the Abraham Accords, but many of these steps have been delayed.

The senator emphasized that the policy with Iran remains the main sticking point.

In view of that, Risch accused the US administration of threatening the security of its allies in the Middle East with its efforts to return to the Iran nuclear deal.

The agreement is still fraught with problems, said Risch about the Iran nuclear deal.

It completely fails to address Iran's domestic terrorism and its ballistic missile program, he told Asharq Al-Awsat, adding that Tehran's efforts to provide hundreds of drones to Russia for use in Ukraine was not helping either.

After the nuclear deal was reached in 2015, sanctions waivers increased Iran’s support for terrorism, noted the senator, adding that such an agreement will also provide a lifeline for Russia during its aggression against Ukraine.

There is a fundamental conflict between the president’s approach to Iran and US national security interests with partners in Israel and the Middle East.

According to Risch, it is better to leave the negotiations table instead of getting confused while sitting at it.

Israel and Gulf states have expressed their sincere interest in building new security relations to protect themselves against the Iranian threat.

On that matter, Risch said that the Biden administration must indulge in these efforts.

Positions of this kind are not limited to Republicans. Even prominent Democratic leaders have expressed similar positions, despite their timid reservations about direct and scathing criticism of the Biden administration.

US Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement in advance of Biden’s trip to Israel, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia.

“President Biden’s visit to Israel, the West Bank, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should underscore that the United States has not walked back its commitment to the region, and in fact will continue to lead with diplomacy and convene partners around a common vision,” the statement read.

“It should unite regional actors as a strong counter-weight to an Iran intent on bolstering its nuclear capabilities and menacing its neighbors,” it added.

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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.