Senators criticise US support for Saudi campaign in Yemen as crown prince visits
Senate expected to vote later on Tuesday on whether to dismiss the resolution seeking end to US support
A Yemeni child walking in the rubble of a building that was destroyed in an air strike in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz, 18 March (AFP)
Tuesday 20 March 2018
US senators debated a resolution seeking an end to American support for Saudi Arabia's campaign in Yemen's civil war on Tuesday, the same day President Donald Trump was due to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.
Some backers of the measure took to the Senate floor to call the three-year-long conflict in Yemen a "humanitarian catastrophe," which they blamed on the Saudis.
Senator Bernie Sanders, a lead sponsor of the legislation, noted the deaths of thousands of civilians, displacement of millions, famine and potentially the largest cholera outbreak in history because of the conflict.
"That is what is going on in Yemen today as a result of the Saudi-led war there," Sanders said.
The 15, mostly Democratic, co-sponsors are trying for the first time to take advantage of a provision in the 1973 War Powers Act that allows any senator to introduce a resolution on whether to withdraw US armed forces from a conflict not authorised by Congress.
The Senate is expected to hold a vote later on Tuesday on whether to dismiss the resolution.
Senator Mike Lee, a Republican leader of the push for the resolution, stressed that it has been in the works for some time, and was not timed "in any way, shape or form" to coincide with the Saudi leader's visit.
"Saudi Arabia is an indispensable partner in the region, without which the United States would be less successful," Lee said.
UK support legal?
Earlier this month, during the crown prince’s visit to London, UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn accused British Prime Minister Theresa May of misleading parliament over the legal basis for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
The row came after the prime minister said the war in Yemen had United Nations backing.
Corbyn said the British government was colluding in what the UN and others had said were suspected war crimes. "Germany has suspended arms supplies to Saudi Arabia, and so must the British government. This outrage must end," he said.
"Nor is it true, as the prime minister claimed, that the Saudi-led war in Yemen has been authorised by the United Nations Security Council.
"What's needed now is both a ceasefire and a concerted international effort to achieve a negotiated political settlement."
