Ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, sources said the administration was considering lifting the ban on selling offensive weapons to the country. The decision will apparently hinge on whether progress is made toward ending the war in Yemen, according to Reuters. Saudi Arabia agreed to an extension of a truce in Yemen, which the U.S. is aiming to extend into a permanent end to the war. Though discussions on the matter have begun in the administration, no decision has yet been made and one is unlikely to come soon.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated that “right now, there is nothing on the table to lift that ban” and “right now, we’re focused on strengthening and sustaining what is a fragile but real ceasefire” in Yemen, according to Reuters. In an opinion piece in The Washington Post, Biden defended his trip to Saudi Arabia, citing a desire to strengthen relations with the country. He argued that countering Russian aggression, positioning the U.S. to outcompete China, and working for greater stability in the Middle East will all require working with Saudi Arabia, making a positive relationship with them vital. While acknowledging Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations, he stated that “my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values.” Michael Page, the Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, argued that sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia should not resume, stating that the decision “could lead to fresh rights violations” and “increase the risk of US complicity in serious rights violations in Yemen.”

As Page rightly observes, the U.S. lifting the ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia would be a step backward in working for human rights in the Middle East, supporting the economic and political interest of the U.S. instead. While it is true that Saudi Arabia could prove a valuable partner in U.S. endeavors to, for instance, unify the Middle East against the United States’s opponents and providing oil to decrease the world’s reliance on Russia, this does not outweigh the need to demonstrate the importance we attribute to human rights. In fact, these most fundamental of rights are the most basic requirements for how a country treats its own and others’ citizens, and should be the first priority in determining U.S. foreign relations. Other concerns, while still important, should be considered after everyone’s human rights and basic needs are met, not before. Thus, the U.S. should prioritize encouraging Saudi Arabia to respect international standards for human rights rather than finding ways to use their relationship with the Middle Eastern country to their advantage, through which they compromise their standards.

Saudi Arabia is allegedly behind many atrocities committed during Yemen’s civil war, including potential war crimes, according to the Human Rights Watch, including the alleged killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and unlawful air strikes. The war began with a rebellion in Yemen’s capital, after which the president reportedly went into exile in Saudi Arabia, according to Al Jazeera. The Council on Foreign Relations explains how Saudi Arabia led a coalition of economic isolation and air strikes against the Yemeni rebels, supported by the U.S. The war has caused a humanitarian crisis in Yemen, deemed the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” by UNHCR. At the end of 2021, the U.S. Congress attempted to stop a sale of missiles and missile launchers to Saudi Arabia, but failed, according to Al Jazeera. Biden had approved the sale, after which a bipartisan group led by Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders attempted to pass a resolution banning the sale.

It is clear that a wide portion of U.S. citizens, regardless of political allegiance, disapprove of Saudi Arabia’s actions in the war in Yemen and do not believe selling additional arms to them conforms with their ideals. In order to align with its own citizens and ensure the protection of human rights around the world, the U.S. should not increase its sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, nor any country not immediately facing attack.