Senate Votes To End US Support For Bloody Yemen War – Condemns Khashoggi Murder
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
The US Senate voted Thursday to withdraw American support for Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, in a rebuke to President Donald Trump. It’s the first time the Senate has voted to withdraw forces from a war Congress didn’t approve. The Senate also passed a measure authored by retiring Foreign Relations chairman, Republican Sen. Bob Corker, to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his alleged role in Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. However, the vote is largely symbolic, as House of Representatives has refused to take it up before the end of the legislative year, assuring the measure will expire before making it to the president’s desk this year.
“Maybe if the Saudis were willing to lie to us about what happen to Jamal Khashoggi, they haven’t been straight with us as to what is happening inside Yemen. Because if the US is being used to intentionally hit civilians, then we are complicit in war crimes,”Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
The United Nations warned the Saudi-led assault is contributing to the death of a young child every 10 minutes in Yemen, a country at the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. In 2015, Saudi Arabia initiated a bombing campaign against its southern neighbor Yemen in what was essentially a proxy war — the Saudis backed a government that had been forced out of the capital by the Houthis, a group allied with Iran. The war in Yemen continues — in part with bombs the Saudi-led coalition of countries bought from the U.S.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan continues to block action to end US support for Saudi atrocities against Yemen.
The Speaker of the House has been scheming to prevent congressional debate on a resolution to get the United States out of a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Ryan on Wednesday pushed language through the House that will prevent lawmakers from taking up any resolution to end U.S. support for the war in Yemen this year.
Senators: Saudi Crown Prince Was Behind Killing Of Khashoggi
After a Dec. 4, 2018 briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel, Senate leaders promptly declared they were convinced that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was behind the killing of journalist Khashoggi, NPR report.
“I have zero question in my mind that the crown prince ordered the killing, monitored the killing, knew exactly what was happening. If he was in front of a jury, he would be convicted in 30 minutes. Guilty. So the question is, ‘What do we do about that?'”
Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican.
President Trump has defended the crown prince and the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia Has Denied The crown Prince Directed Khashoggi Murder
Credit: Wikipedia / Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
U.S. Defense Contractor Lockheed Martin Supplied Laser-Guided Bomb In Deadly School Bus Bombing In Yemen
Source: hrw.org / © 2018 Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images / People are seen near a bus destroyed by an airstrike that killed dozens of children, in a photograph taken on August 12, 2018 in Saada, Yemen.
U.N. experts have pointed to possible war crimes by parties to the ongoing armed conflict in Yemen.
On August 7, 2018, an air strike hit a school bus—with a laser-guided bomb made by U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin—in northern Yemen, killing 51 people, 40 of them schoolchildren.Seventy-nine others were wounded, including 56 children, according to The Nation. “The War From Hell—Supported by the United States”: article in The Nation.
U.S.-Backed Saudi Arabia – Yemen Conflict Is “THE WAR FROM HELL”
