The National / July 23, 2024
Every word Vice President says about the Middle East will be scrutinized as she moves towards nomination.
US Vice President Kamala Harris is widely expected to become the Democratic Party nominee after President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, but what does it mean for the Middle East?
Harris has had little opportunity to weigh in on the Middle East, with her deputy role mainly focused on domestic issues while Biden dealt with crises in Israel, Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon and beyond.
But she has taken trips to Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Jordan and the UAE. Philip Gordon, who is known for his extensive Middle East experience, is her national security adviser.
Here is a look at Harris’s views on the Middle East:
Israel and Gaza
With the Israel-Gaza war continuing, Harris’s views on the conflict will come under intense scrutiny.
Arab Americans, progressives and anti-war activists are furious over the Biden administration’s support to Israel, while pro-Israeli communities have looked for cases of anti-Semitism or pro-Palestinian sentiment.
Harris has been – and will probably still be – in line with the Democratic establishment stance of strong Israeli backing, but she has also focused on the plight and human rights of Palestinians.
She has emphasized that Israel has a right to self-defence, and needs continued US security assistance. She has also called for the release of hostages held by militant groups in Gaza.
“She will continue the US’s steadfast support for Israel but could prove to be more sympathetic on the case of Palestine,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, told The National.
Harris in March called for an “immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks” between Israel and Hamas before her boss publicly called for the same.
NBC News reported that White House National Security Council officials “toned down parts” of her speech in Alabama, because the initial draft was “harsher on Israel”.
Harris has also focused on the civilian death toll, famine risks and worsening humanitarian risks in Gaza.
“As I have said many times, too many innocent Palestinians have been killed,” she said in March, when she insisted that “the Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid”.
Harris has supported a two-state solution, opposed annexation and condemned West Bank settler violence.
Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish. He has been a liaison to the Jewish community in the US, and worked as a de facto Biden administration surrogate against anti-Semitism.
Harris spoke at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in 2017.
“Let me be clear about what I believe, I stand with Israel,” she said.
She addressed AIPAC again in 2018 but in an off-the-record meeting, The Intercept and HuffPost reported.
The then-presidential candidate released a transcript of her remarks after questions by news media, where she said that her support for Israel has “always been part of me”.
On Iran
Harris condemned Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran in 2018, calling it “reckless”.
During her presidential campaign in 2019, she said she would have the US rejoin the agreement and ensure “verifiable compliance” for Iran’s nuclear program.
Harris has also repeatedly criticized Iran’s human rights breaches in its violent crackdowns on protests, including the anti-government movement in 2022 after Mahsa Amini’s death in morality police custody.
“All people in Iran must have the right to freedom of expression and assembly, and Iran must end its use of violence against its own citizens simply for exercising their fundamental freedoms,” she said at the time.
Harris has also called for the removal of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
She did not agree with the Trump administration’s killing of Iranian Gen Qassem Suleimani, even if he was “an enemy of the US”, saying she was focused on the safety of American troops and regional stability.
On the Gulf
As a senator, Harris voted to restrict arms sales and military sales to Saudi Arabia over its actions in Yemen and its role in the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
She co-sponsored bills in 2018 and 2019 that would have ended US support for the Saudi-led coalition’s operations in Yemen.
“The United States and Saudi Arabia still have mutual areas of interest, such as counter-terrorism, where the Saudis have been strong partners,” she told the Council of Foreign Relations in 2020.
“But we need to fundamentally re-evaluate our relationship with Saudi Arabia, using our leverage to stand up for American values and interests.”
Harris also expressed disdain over the conflict in Yemen and its protracted humanitarian crises.
On Syria
Harris is not a supporter of President Bashar al-Assad. She criticized former US representative Tulsi Gabbard in 2019 for meeting with the Syrian leader, who Harris had repeatedly called a war criminal.
She said Gabbard was an “apologist” for Al-Assad, who “has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches” in the protest crackdown in 2011 and the civil war that has continued in the years since.
Harris condemned Trump for withdrawing American troops from north-eastern Syria in 2019, just before Turkey launched an attack on Kurdistan regions in the country.
She said it showed a lack of support for Kurdish forces who were backing the US-led fight against ISIS.
When she was a senator in 2017, Harris’s first foreign trip in office was to the Middle East, where she met American troops in Iraq and visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.
