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Tigray violence with Eritrean involvement draws the attention of US administration and the United Nations

Tigray

Since November last year, the country of Ethiopia has been embroiled in a crisis that has grown from efforts to separate the country’s politics from the ethnic federalism and merging of the region-based and ethnic parties to a full scale armed conflict between the Tigray and National defence forces of Ethiopia. Reports have suggested that 500-600 have been killed on the Tigray side of the armed conflict.

There have been reports of extra-judicial killings and cases of war crimes in this civil war of sorts in the country located near the horn of Africa. This armed conflict has now managed to turn the heads of the UN security-council and the US administration.  It has also seen the involvement of Eritrea opposing the Tigray movement.

Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea has been blamed for the escalating conflict in the Tigray region. A scholar from Tigray, Mulugeta Gebrehiwot, in a phone call has revealed that the Eritrean troops cut down mango orchards, razed down villages, dismantled the irrigation system, and have massacred many people across the age groups. Recently, Amnesty International had documented a November 2020 massacre in a cathedral in Axum, where the number of slaughtered went into hundreds. The Eritrean troops have been on their rampage across the town of Samre and the villages of Gijet, Adeba, and Tseada Sare. The scholar also added that “a famine is coming”, underscoring the grave situation in Tigray.

The peculiar nature of the army of Eritrea is giving leverage to Isaias Afwerki to spread his influence in north Ethiopia. Eritrean army is formed of 200000 personnel, with most of them enlisted in compulsory & indefinite national service, upon reaching the eleventh grade. This army which is basically built using a crude form of conscription, along with the locally dreaded national security & intelligence services is funded by around a fifth of the Eritrean budget. The expenditure for the Eritrean military is mostly obscure given that the country does not publish its budget. Using this military, Eritrea is helping the Ethiopian defence forces to carry out scorch-earth operations in the Tigray region.

Recently, the ousted leader of the Tigray region, the president of the Tigray people’s liberation front-Debretsion Gebremichael has accused the Ethiopian government and the allies like Eritrea of genocide and other crimes against humanity.  The Eritrean soldiers were accused of firing in the Maryam Dengelat Church in the village of Dengelat. It has also been asserted in a note of accusation to Eritrean army that after the Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed had launched a military operation against the Tigray region, thousands of civilians have been killed by the defence forces of Ethiopia in collusion with armies of allies.

Subsequently, Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, had asked the Ethiopian PM, Ahmed, over a phone call to end the hostilities in the Tigray region.  The Biden administration has identified the crisis originating from Tigray conflict as a deepening humanitarian crisis. Blinken also stated that PM Abiy Ahmed has been asked to allow an independent international investigation into the conflict. The communication from the US secretary of state is important in the current situation as the Tigray region has seen clampdown on reporting and many journalists were detained in the region, which has caused limited information to come out of there.

Also Read: Trends in Foreign Policy of post-Cold-War US -where Joe Biden might fit in-Hamiltonianism, Jeffersonianism, Wilsonianism, or Jacksonianism

The issue of Tigray conflict was taken up at the UN by the Irish government. Following this, the issue of Ethiopia-Tigray would need the involvement and the cooperation from the African countries to be solved, an analyst based in UN has disclosed.

As per a UN expert, there are presently two situations for the UN to deal with the Tigray situation. The first is a more general resolution to be brought in the Security-Council and the general assembly meetings of the UN. The second one is a process that involves Resolution 2417, which specifically targets the situations where there can be a link between the conflict and food-insecurity. Other observers in the UN also stated that it is the responsibility of the African Union members to call out the situation in Tigray, and that the indifference to the situation & the grave circumstances are like regression and crimes against humanity in themselves.

UN Chief Antonio Guterres has asked Eritrea to remove its troops from the Tigray region, as there are accusations of human rights violations against them in the armed conflict in Ethiopia. But, the UN Security Council has failed to reach a conclusion because of divisions. The UN is worried that the Tigray-conflict can spill into other regions and escalate and exacerbate into a hunger crisis of catastrophic proportions.

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US-China relations: Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented a stronger posture with China

US-China-flags

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that China will be held accountable by the US for its abuses of the international system. The point was made as he was speaking to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. Blinken also raised with Jiechi the issue of human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. This reflects the bold foreign policy posture taken by US under Joe Biden.

Also Read: Australian Strategic Policy Institute finds out about detention camps in China

The two leaders, Blinken & Jiechi spoke, in what was the first conversation between the top officials since President Joe Biden took office on January 20.

US countering China

Secretary Blinken stressed that the United States will continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. This is reflective of the Wilsonian spirit in the Foreign Policy stance under Biden. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a readout of the call, that Blinken also pressed China to join the international community in condemning the military coup in Burma (Myanmar).

China has faced severe criticism, in recent years from western countries over human rights violations in Tibet. Persistent reports of the mass detention of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang have cornered China over the issue, and attracted scathing criticisms from multiple parties.

China has also ramped up a crackdown in Hong Kong after imposing a new law against subversion following major protests in the city.

Ned Price added that during the call, Blinken reaffirmed that the United States will work together with its allies and partners in defence of their shared values and interests to hold China accountable for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific , including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system.

Blinken tweeted, “In my call with my counterpart in Beijing, I made clear the US will defend our national interests, stand up for our democratic values, and hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system.”

Apart from human rights issues, US is seeking to involve and engage China in talks that can result in bringing the latter in a Nuclear treaty aimed at limiting and reducing the nuclear armaments. The New START treaty is being considered as the platform on which China can be integrated into the disarmament and arms limitation talks. Robert Wood is the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, & the US Commissioner for the New START treaty’s bilateral consultative Commission. Few days back, Wood, in a speech to the Conference on Disarmament, a body sponsored by the UN, with Russian & Chinese ambassadors in attendance, called for a treaty which would “cover more weapons, and eventually more countries.”

In another geographical theatre, almost all of the 1.3 million square-mile South China Sea is claimed by China as its sovereign territory and the Red Dragon has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Especially during and after the Covid19 outbreak, the tensions in the South China Sea have increased between China & US, with navies of both the countries carrying out exercises in the disputed region. The SCS region also stands as testing bed for the defence angle of Biden’s foreign policy given it has close links with rivals of China in the region.

Chinese challenge for US in the Middle-East

Gradual increase in the involvement of China in the middle-east is also a cause of concern for the West, especially the US under the leadership of Biden and Blinken.  US has managed to keep China at bay in the context of the deepening relation between Israel and UAE after the signing of the Abraham Accords. It has been able to distance China from the development of the Haifa and Ashdod ports or Israel’s 5G network.

This does not mean a complete absence of China from the port development works in Israel or ME in general. The vaccine diplomacy by China through the placement of its Covid19 vaccine Sinopharm is also a cause of concern for the Biden-led US coming out of the cocoon Trump had put around the American diplomacy. Pfizer vaccine requires -70 degree Celsius while the Sinopharm vaccine needs 2-8 Degrees Celsius for cold storage, which gives an advantage to China to place its vaccine in the ME. And, the outgoing & aggressive health diplomacy adopted by China when Trump cut-off US from the world vaccine efforts & the WHO, had made the vaccine game tougher for US. China had prioritized UAE over others in giving away doses of Sinopharm vaccine. Choosing of UAE by China is unsurprising as the Arab state is now getting cold-shoulders from US especially in the context of the conflicts in the region like the Yemeni Civil War.

Certainly, all of these might be playing on the minds of the policy wonks in the current WH under Biden.

Also Read: After he leaves the office Trump may be missed in the Middle-East-the testing ground for Biden’s foreign policy

US withdrawal of support from Yemeni War

Biden administration in its stance to protect human rights has recently withdrawn its support in the Yemen war, in the Arabian Peninsula, including relevant arms sales. In this regard, the WH has suspended arms sale to Saudi Arabia and has put the arms-sales to the UAE under review. Biden had also stated that the USAID would ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the Yemenis who are on the brink of starvation in the worst man-made humanitarian crisis.

As a part of diplomatic rapport building, Antony Blinken, after being sworn in as the Secretary of State, has spoken over the phone with nearly 30 of his counterparts from various parts of the world. He also spoke with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on January 29, during which the two leaders reaffirmed the growing bilateral partnership between the two countries.

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Antony Blinken, a long term Biden confidant confirmed as the Secretary of the State by the US Senate

Antony Blinken

The US Senate, on Tuesday, confirmed Antony Blinken as America’s top diplomat, tasked with carrying out President Joe Biden’s commitment to reverse the Trump administration’s “America First” doctrine that weakened international alliances.

Senators voted 78-22 to approve Blinken, a longtime Biden confidant, as the nation’s 71st secretary of State, succeeding Mike Pompeo. The position is the most senior Cabinet position, with the secretary fourth in the line of presidential succession.

Blinken, 58, served as deputy secretary of State and deputy national security advisor during the Obama administration. He has pledged to be a leading force in the administration’s bid to reframe the U.S. relationship with the rest of the world after four years in which President Trump questioned longtime alliances. Blinken is expected to start work on Wednesday after being sworn in, according to State Department officials.

“American leadership still matters,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his January 19 confirmation hearing. He further added, “The reality is, the world simply does not organize itself. When we are not engaged, when we are not leading, then one of two things is likely to happen. Either some other country tries to take our place, but not in a way that is likely to advance our interests and values, or maybe just as bad, no one does and then you have chaos.”

Also Read: Trends in US foreign policy- which archetype might Biden fit in

Blinken vowed that the Biden administration would approach the world with both humility and confidence, saying, “We have a great deal of work to do at home to enhance our standing abroad.” Despite promising renewed American leadership and an emphasis on shoring up strained ties with allies in Europe and Asia, Blinken told lawmakers that he agreed with many of Trump’s foreign policy initiatives. He backed the so-called Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, and a tough stance on China over human rights and its assertiveness in the South China Sea. He did, however, signal that the Biden administration was interested in bringing Iran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew  in 2018.

Also Read: The plausible link between the Abraham Accords & the Afghan peace process

Trump’s secretaries of State nominees met with significant opposition from Democrats. Trump’s first nominee for the job, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, was approved by a 56 to 43 vote and served only 13 months before Trump fired him by tweet. His successor, Pompeo, was confirmed in a 57-42 vote. Opposition to Blinken centred on Iran policy and concerns among conservatives that he would abandon Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.

Blinken inherits a deeply demoralized and depleted career workforce at the State Department. Neither Tillerson nor Pompeo offered strong resistance to the Trump administration’s attempts to gut the agency, which were thwarted only by congressional intervention. Although the department escaped proposed cuts of more than 30% of its budget for three consecutive years, it has seen a significant number of departures from its senior and rising midlevel ranks. Many diplomats opted to retire or leave the Foreign Service given limited prospects for advancement under an administration that they believed did not value their expertise.

A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School and a longtime Democratic foreign policy presence, Blinken has aligned himself with numerous former senior national security officials who have called for a major reinvestment in American diplomacy and renewed emphasis on global engagement.

Blinken has served on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration before becoming staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when Biden was chair of the panel. In the early years of the Obama administration, Blinken returned to the NSC and was then-Vice President Biden’s national security advisor before he moved to the State Department to serve as deputy to the then Secretary of State John Kerry, who is now serving as special envoy for climate change.

(Associated Press)