The Senate voted to end US support to the Saudi-UAE-led Yemen War.
Defying the USA President Trump, US Senate voted to approve a resolution calling an end to the USA’s involvement in the Saudi-UAE led military campaign in Yemen. The Senate also passed a resolution stating that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is responsible for the murder of the US journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This is after the US President Trump unequivocally pledged his vocal support to the Crown Prince.
This military offensive began in 2015, with the targeting of Houthi rebels. The number of civilians killed in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and UAE air attacks with US-made weapons has risen dramatically. This has outraged US politicians.
Trump administration officials had urged Congress to not make this move. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis described the conflict in private briefings for legislators as part of a larger regional contest with Iran.
“The United States will no longer participate in the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen which has caused the worst humanitarian crisis on earth with already 85 thousand children starved to death,” Senator Bernie Sanders.
About the Khashoggi murder, Sanders said that “What the United States Senate said today, in a very loud way, is that we will not continue to have our military posture dictated by a despotic murderous regime in Saudi Arabia, a regime which does not respect democracy, does not respect human rights, a regime whose leader, nobody doubts, was involved in the horrific murder of a dissident journalist in the Saudi consulate in Turkey”.