US should match its words with deeds and truly come back to multilateralism

The Joe Biden administration has shown its reluctance to get sidetracked by regional concerns such as the war in Afghanistan and conflicts in the Middle East.

But two weeks of a bloody upsurge in the Israel-Palestine conflict is a reminder that the America that President Biden claims "is back" can't pretend those troubles are negligible just because it wants to make a strategic geopolitical shift.

The Biden administration has found itself under fire, because of its initial silence, and then its shilly-shally statements on the bloodshed. What it has done－issuing ambiguous appeals for restraint while avoiding getting further involved－is certainly not what people expect of the US as a global leader, or even as a responsible world power with significant influence in the region.