The US Senate has rejected an effort to end support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and driven the country to the brink of famine, after a rare attempt by Congress to claw back its war powers from the executive branch.
The Senate voted 55-44 on Tuesday against taking up the war powers resolution, which had been opposed by the Trump administration.
The vote coincided with a White House meeting between Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, at which the president lauded US defense sales to Saudi Arabia.
“The relationship is probably the strongest it’s ever been,” Trump said. “Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy nation and they’re going to give the United States some of that wealth, hopefully, in the form of jobs, in the form of the purchase of the finest military equipment anywhere in the world.”
The resolution to end US support for the Yemen conflict had been championed by senators from across the ideological spectrum, including independent Bernie Sanders, Republican Mike Lee, and Democrat Chris Murphy, and would have required Trump to extract any troops in “or affecting” Yemen within 30 days.
“For far too long, Congress under Democratic and Republican administrations has abdicated its constitutional role in authorizing war,” Sanders said in a speech on the Senate floor before the vote.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, had urged lawmakers to abandon the effort, calling it “bad policy” and “procedurally mistaken”. He echoed the Pentagon’s argument that the resolution should not invoke the War Powers Act because the support the US is providing to the Saudi-led coalition “does not involve any introduction of US forces for purposes of the War Powers Resolution”.
McConnell added that US intelligence provides the Saudis “greater precision in their air campaign”, resulting in fewer civilian casualties.
“Withdrawing US support would increase not decrease the risk of civilian casualties and it would signal that we’re not serious about containing Iran or it’s proxies,” he said.
The third anniversary of the Saudi intervention in Yemen falls this weekend, with no sign of peace.
The conflict began in 2014, when the Houthis, Shia rebels from the country’s north, seized the nation’s capital and ousted the Saudi-backed ruler, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who lives in exile in Riyadh.
In response, a Saudi-led Arab coalition began a bombing campaign in 2015, to restore the exiled government to power.
The US has not formally backed the Saudi coalition, but it has provided targeted intelligence to the bombing campaign and has assisted with refueling coalition bombers.
The United Nations has said the conflict has created one of the world’s worst manmade humanitarian disasters, as millions of Yemenis have been displaced and the population faces famine, with aid agencies struggling to supply assistance.
Ahead of the vote, Yemen aid campaigners challenged Saudi claims that it had lifted its aid blockade on Yemen, and said restrictions meant the flow of commercial food and fuel was still below required levels. The continued disruption was pushing up the price of oil and depriving hospitals of power, they said.
Speaking from the Yemen capital of Sanaa, Radyha al-Mutawakel, chair of the Mwatana organization for human rights, said: “It is much cheaper to stop the war rather than the continuously buying and selling arms. There are no heroes in Yemen, just criminals and victims. Anyone that comes to Yemen says ‘you are not living you are dying’. People no longer have the resources for life.”
