The Biden administration is giving top priority to ending the brutal war in Yemen, appointing a special envoy, Timothy Lenderking, who is already in full diplomatic surge.

Yemen has been dubbed the worst humanitarian crisis in the world by the United Nations. US leadership may be what it takes to get some traction for a peace effort that badly needs a boost. The same could be said for the wars in Syria and Libya.

Three of seven high intensity conflicts are in the Middle East

For the new administration, helping to end the Syria and Libya wars, as well as Yemen's, would be a further sign that “diplomacy is back,” a goal of US President Joe Biden. The Middle East’s three running wars have been nothing short of catastrophic for those countries and the region. In the World Bank classification of states in fragile and conflict-affected situations, Yemen, Syria and Libya fall into the top, high "intensity" conflict category, meaning those battle-torn countries with the greatest likelihood to suffer from deep, chronic poverty (the only other states in this group are Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Somalia and South Sudan).