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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/09/28/lawmakers-demand-u-s-withdrawal-from-saudi-led-war-in-yemen/" target="_blank">http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/<wbr>09/28/lawmakers-demand-u-s-wit<wbr>hdrawal-from-saudi-led-war-in-<wbr>yemen/</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Lawmakers Demand U.S. Withdrawal From Saudi-led War in Yemen<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bipartisan bill proposes halting military assistance to air
war in Yemen unless Congress votes on U.S. role.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">BY DAN DE LUCE, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Four lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill that would
halt U.S. military assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen on grounds
that Congress has never approved the American role in the war.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Two House Republicans and two Democrats submitted the bill
on Wednesday evening, but other lawmakers have already conveyed their support
for the measure, congressional aides told Foreign Policy.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The bill requires “the removal” of U.S. forces from the war
in Yemen unless and until Congress votes to authorize the American assistance.
For more than two years, the United States military has provided aerial
refueling tankers and intelligence to the Saudi-led coalition waging war
against Houthi rebels backed by Iran.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“We aim to restore Congress as the constitutionally mandated
branch of government that may declare war and retain oversight over it,” two
sponsors, Democrats Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Rep. Mark Pocan of
Wisconsin, wrote in a letter to colleagues, obtained by FP.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Although the bipartisan bill is unlikely to secure a
majority in the House, it underscores growing concerns over Saudi Arabia’s
handling of the war that is now at a stalemate on the battlefield. And it
reflects growing unease at Congress over the U.S. role there, following
previous attempts by lawmakers this year to rein in arms sales or other
military assistance to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their Gulf
partners backing the Yemeni government.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Both Republicans and Democrats have accused the Gulf
coalition of delaying or blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and
criticized the Saudi-led states for bombing raids that have hit schools and
hospitals and killed and wounded large numbers of civilians. As a result of the
war, more than seven million people are on the verge of starvation in Yemen,
U.N. officials say, and the country faces an unprecedented cholera outbreak
that has spread at an alarming rate in only seven months.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s beyond time for the country to stop conducting refueling
for missions over Yemen,” Khanna, a member of the House Armed Services
Committee, told FP in an email.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Congress and the American people know too little about the
role we are playing in a war that is causing suffering for millions of people
and is a genuine threat to our national security,” he said. <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The two Republican co-sponsors of the bill, Rep. Thomas
Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, are both
conservatives who have called for upholding Congress’ constitutional authority
to declare war.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Pocan, the Wisconsin Democrat, said it was time for Congress
to end the U.S. role in “this senseless, unauthorized conflict. “<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The authors of the bill also argued that assistance to the
coalition bombing in Yemen was harming U.S. security interests, by creating
conditions that enabled al Qaeda and Islamic State to bolster their presence in
the country.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The proposed legislation will help “in reducing a genuine
threat to national security posed by the expansion of Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula, and promises to assist in ending the senseless suffering of millions
of innocent people in Yemen,” according to the text of the bill.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The bill cites a 2016 State Department report on terrorism
in Yemen, which found that al Qaeda and Islamic State militants have benefited
from the country’s “security vacuum” and exploited sectarian tensions between
the Sunni Yemeni government and the Shiite Houthi rebels.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The bill does not seek to end U.S. counterterrorism
operations — including drone strikes — against al Qaeda or Islamic State
branches in Yemen, which date back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on
New York and Washington.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Saudi-led coalition launched its air war in Yemen in
March 2015 after Houthi rebels backed by Tehran ousted the government led by
president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anxious over its image, Saudi Arabia has invested in an
extensive public relations effort in Washington to counter criticism of the air
war in Yemen and its obstruction of humanitarian aid deliveries to Sanaa
airport and the country’s main port in Hodeida.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Riyadh has argued that it had to intervene to defend itself
against Iranian-backed and armed Houthi rebels who have fired rockets across
its border. And it accuses Houthi forces of diverting aid from the Hodeida
port, though international relief organizations have not confirmed those
allegations.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Saudi-led coalition has come under intense scrutiny in
Congress over its refusal since January to permit the delivery of four cranes
financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development to the port of
Hodeida. The World Food Programme and other aid groups say the cranes are
crucial for unloading emergency food and medical supplies from ships arriving
at the port amid a mounting humanitarian catastrophe.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The blockade on the cranes violates international law and
the Geneva Conventions, human rights groups say. And by continuing to provide
military assistance to the coalition, the United States could be violating U.S.
law, according to a legal opinion from the American Bar Association’s Center
for Human Rights.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits aid to governments that
directly or indirectly block the transport of U.S. humanitarian assistance,
unless the president certifies to Congress that it is in the security interests
of the United States, it said.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>=== </span></p>
</div><br clear="all"><div><div class="m_-4424251760284796875m_-726608976827565157m_-5790418541173925224gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Robert Naiman<br>Policy Director<br>Just Foreign Policy<br><a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><div><span style="text-align:left"><a href="tel:(202)%20448-2898" value="+12024482898" target="_blank">(202) 448-2898 x1</a></span></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:12.8px">House: Use War Powers to Save A Million Yemeni Kids from Cholera & Famine<br></div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><a href="https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/force-vote-on-saudi-war?r_by=1135580" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">https://petitions.moveon.org/s<wbr>ign/force-vote-on-saudi-war?r_<wbr>by=1135580</a><br></div></div><div><div style="font-size:12.8px"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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