US Senate to rebuke Trump on support for Saudi Arabia

The US Senate is set to vote on Wednesday on a resolution that would withdraw Washington's support for the Saudi Arabia-led military aggression on Yemen, in a direct rebuke of President Donald Trump as lawmakers push his administration to toughen its policy toward Riyadh.

News ID: 443906

Date: 14 March 2019 - 11:16

RNA - The resolution, introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), will scale back the US role in and American military assistance for Saudi war on Yemen.

“The resolution we will vote on in the Senate tomorrow to end US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen is enormously important and historic,” Sander said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This war is both a humanitarian and a strategic disaster, and Congress has the opportunity to end it,” the Vermont senator added.

The resolution would need only a simple majority to pass the Senate, which approved a similar resolution 56-41 in December last year in the aftermath of the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

The December vote was the first time the US Senate backed a resolution to pull out forces from a war that was not approved by Congress.

“The humanitarian catastrophe has only gotten worse in Yemen, and our intervention there is every bit as unconstitutional as it was then,” Sanders also said on Tuesday. “This time, after passing the Senate, I am confident it will pass in the House."

The White House warned last year that Trump would veto the resolution even if the measure passed the Democratic-controlled House.

The brutal murder of Khashoggi in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul has served as a boost to the lawmakers' resolve to take on the Saudi royal family, which has a very close connection with Trump.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the former Saudi-sponsored government back to power.

According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

The US along with some Western countries are complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

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