Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared this week that the Middle East is at its most unstable since 1973, a sharp change from the Biden administration’s tone on the region just a few months ago.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in September that the Middle East was “quieter” than it had been in the past 20 years. The Oct. 7 massacre in Israel by Hamas occurred just days later, plunging the region into chaos and threatening a broader war between the United States, Israel, and Iran.
“I think it’s very important to recognize that we’re in a period of incredible instability in the Middle East region,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with NATO on Monday. “I would argue that we have not seen a situation as dangerous as the one we are currently facing across this region since at least 1973, and probably even before that.”
“The Middle East is quieter today than it has been in the last 20 years,” Sullivan said in a Foreign Policy article published just eight days ago on Oct. 7, adding, “Challenges remain today. .Iran’s nuclear weapons program and tensions between the Israeli people.” But compared to my post-9/11 predecessors, today I have to spend significantly less time on Middle East crises and conflicts. ”
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Middle East has become more unstable than since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Late last year, NBC News’ Kristen Welker pressed Sullivan about how he and other members of the Biden administration were “missing the mark” when it came to the reality of tensions in the region.
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“First, Kristen, I made these comments in the context of developments in the broader Middle East region over the past few years, 20 years later with the civil war in Yemen and the massive humanitarian catastrophe, and the civil war and war in Syria. Many other measures include the massive refugee crisis, the invasion and insurgency in Iraq, the NATO military operation in Libya, the Iranian-backed attacks on both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the rise of a terrorist caliphate that has actually occupied vast swathes of territory. ” Sullivan replied.
“While it is true that these two threats remain real challenges to the long-term stability of the Middle East region, and we have just witnessed this absolutely tragic attack, the Biden administration will continue to In fact, President Biden met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the weeks before this attack to discuss the security challenges facing the state of Israel, and we are more than any previous administration. We continue to support them in important and even more important ways,” he added.
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Foreign Policy later updated Sullivan’s essay to remove a line advocating a “quieter” Middle East. It also added an editor’s note that this text had been “updated to address Hamas attacks on Israel that occurred after the print version of the article was published.”
Foreign Policy has since updated National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s essay to remove a line advocating a “quieter” Middle East. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Another part of the paper, now deleted, argued that the West Bank, not Gaza, posed the greater threat of conflagration between Israel and the Palestinians.
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Months after Sullivan’s analytical failure, President Biden is now wondering what action to take against Iran and its terrorist proxies in the wake of the deadly drone attack on U.S. forces in Jordan. We are considering.
White House National Security Council Press Secretary John Kirby has repeatedly asserted that the administration does not want war with Iran, but Biden is walking a fine line in responding to the attack without further escalating the conflict. I accepted that I had to walk.
