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The administration did not immediately impose sanctions under the new order, but “is ready to take aggressive action” unless the parties – including the Ethiopian government, the Eritrean government, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray and the Amhara regional government – “are taking significant steps to begin talks for a negotiated ceasefire and allow unimpeded humanitarian access,” a senior administration official told reporters.
The official said the administration was looking to see action in “weeks, not months.” Biden approved the executive order after the administration “wired for months that the parties needed to change course,” a second senior administration official said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that “in the absence of clear and concrete progress towards a negotiated ceasefire and an end to the abuses – as well as unhindered humanitarian access to the suffering Ethiopians – the United States will appoint officers, organizations, and entities under this new sanctions regime.
In a statement released Friday, Biden said “the ongoing conflict in northern Ethiopia is a tragedy causing immense human suffering and threatening the unity of the Ethiopian state.”
“The United States is determined to push for a peaceful resolution of this conflict, and we will give full support to those leading the mediation efforts,” he said.
“I join leaders across Africa and around the world in urging the parties to the conflict to end their military campaigns, respect human rights, allow unhindered humanitarian access and come to the negotiating table without preconditions. Eritrean forces must withdraw from Ethiopia, “Biden said. noted.
Blinken noted that “if the parties take immediate action” to these ends, “the United States is ready to delay the imposition of sanctions and to focus on supporting a negotiated process.”
Although an administration official expressed optimism “about the increasing steps” taken by regional leaders and the African Union to support a mediated solution, the administration is “not optimistic about the situation on the field and that is why the president authorized this executive decree in order to strengthen the pressure. ”
A Senate adviser told CNN that the US embassies in Ethiopia and Eritrea have already identified the names of some potential sanctions targets. Officials stressed that any sanctions would have exemptions for humanitarian and development assistance.
“Another path is possible but the leaders must make the choice to pursue it”, declared the American president.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday pledged that the country “will not succumb to the consequences of pressure from disgruntled individuals for whom the consolidation of power is more important than the well-being of millions of people.”
In a long open letter to Biden, Abiy argued that his government’s actions in the Tigray region “have been continually distorted” and blamed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Tigray for the crisis.
“As a longtime friend, strategic ally and security partner, the recent US policy against my country is not only a surprise to our proud nation, but obviously goes beyond humanitarian concerns,” Abiy wrote. .
“Hateful violations of human rights”
The decree reflects a growing sense of urgency in the situation in Tigray, where humanitarian access to deliver critically needed food, fuel and medicine has been largely cut.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are facing famine, largely due to the Ethiopian government’s efforts to delay and prevent humanitarian aid from reaching the civilian populations who need this emergency food and medical assistance to survive, ”US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power said Friday.
“We cannot ignore the fact that heinous human rights violations are perpetrated against civilians,” she said.
CNN has uncovered evidence that mass detentions, sexual violence and killings characteristic of the genocide have taken place in Tigray.
The inquiries prompted Congress to step up pressure on the administration to take action, according to a Senate adviser.
In Friday’s statement, Biden said he was “appalled at reports of mass killings, rapes and other sexual violence aimed at terrorizing civilians.”
Administration officials acknowledged that the situation in Tigray had deteriorated in recent months and expressed concern that violence would escalate as the rainy season draws to a close, allowing more traffic. In the region.
The situation is likely to be a “key discussion” at the United Nations General Assembly next week in New York, the second official said, “because it is currently one of the largest humanitarian disasters in the world “.
“There is a broad consensus, at least outside Ethiopia, that there is no military solution to this conflict,” they said.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hailed the new executive order.
“The continued human rights violations by parties to the conflict in Ethiopia warrant an unequivocal response: we will not tolerate war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic violence,” said Democratic Sense Robert Menendez – le chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – and Chris Coons – who was sent by the Biden administration early in the crisis to meet with Abiy.
The two senators said they would “unveil a new legislative effort in the coming weeks for Congress to significantly strengthen the United States’ efforts to prosecute the carnage in the Tigray region as this protracted ethnic conflict draws near. the one year mark “.
The Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee Senator Jim Risch and Representative Michael McCaul also welcomed the news, with the latter saying “there must be accountability for these egregious acts and I support the new decree of the Biden administration. . “
“I also urge the Biden administration to finalize the determination of whether war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide were committed during this conflict, a determination that was supposed to be imminent when Administration officials testified before our committee in June, “McCaul added. “This determination must be completed and made public without delay.”
Acting Assistant Secretary of State Robert Godec told lawmakers in late June that “the administration strongly agrees that horrific atrocities have been committed in Tigray and Secretary Blinken said in a statement. Previous testimony, as you said, that there had been acts of ethnic cleansing. . “
“We are in the process of carrying out a review based on the facts and the law to determine whether the terms crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes can and should be used,” he said. “The final decision whether or not to use these terms rests with the Secretary of State.”
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