President Joe Biden released a memo Thursday highlighting the standards foreign governments that receive US military aid must adhere to, according to the White House.
Under the memo, the secretary of state must “obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving defense articles,” Biden wrote.
“The Secretaries of State and Defense are responsible for ensuring that all transfers of defense articles and defense services by the Departments of State and Defense under any security cooperation or security assistance authorities are conducted in a manner consistent with all applicable international and domestic law and policy, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” according to the memo.
The Biden administration sought to downplay the move, noting that while these standards are not new, this marked an opportunity to “(spell) out publicly the existing standards set by international laws,” a senior administration official said.
The official dismissed any suggestion that Israel’s actions in Gaza were a motivating factor. More than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed and 66,000 injured since the October 7 Hamas attacks, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, in Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground assault on the strip, which has flattened entire neighborhoods.
“We’re not issuing this because we think any country or countries are violating these standards. If we did, you’d have heard it about long ago – and seen the consequences,” the senior official said.
The official continued, “Quite the opposite, in fact: this is an opportunity to be transparent with the American public what the standards we require countries to adhere to are and how we go about obtaining assurances that they’ll be met.”
That comes as Biden expressed to reporters Thursday evening that Israel’s conduct in Gaza “has been over the top.”
The memorandum was in part the result of discussions between the administration and members of Congress. The official said that “in the interest of transparency,” the White House plans to send a new annual report to Congress on the standards for countries receiving US weapons.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland welcomed the memo, writing in a post on X that it will “help hold all recipients of US weapons – including the Netanyahu government – more accountable. It’s a huge step forward in shining a light on the use of US taxpayer dollars, and will have a lasting impact for years to come.” Van Hollen added in a statement that he “worked closely with the Administration” on the memo.
Van Hollen was also part of a group of 19 senators who introduced an amendment to the national security supplemental this week that would “require that the weapons received by any country under the proposed national security supplemental are used in accordance with U.S. law, international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict.”
