[Peace] WaPo: Lawmakers make new push to end Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen

[Robert Naiman]

"We're getting the band back together." - Jake Blues

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmakers-seek-to-end-saudi-bombing-campaign-in-yemen/2019/09/02/c28e123a-6204-4315-8598-9fc66f0c8b70_story.html


*Lawmakers make new push to end Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen*


By John Hudson and Missy Ryan

September 2 at 8:41 PM


A group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers is making a new push to end
the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen amid intensifying criticism of the
air war following an attack on a rebel-run prison
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/saudi-coalition-airstrike-kills-dozens-in-yemen-red-cross-to-investigate/2019/09/01/19e376f6-ccab-11e9-9031-519885a08a86_story.html>
that
may have killed more than 100 people Sunday.

The lawmakers’ goal is to prohibit U.S. logistical support for the
coalition’s airstrikes through an amendment to the annual defense policy
bill, a move that they hope would effectively ground the air campaign by
banning the U.S. provision of spare parts that Saudi Arabia needs to
maintain its planes. The measure would also restrict certain forms of
intelligence-sharing.

The amendment, first presented by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California,
already passed in the House’s version of the defense authorization, and now
members of both chambers are pressing their colleagues not to remove it
during conference negotiations with the Senate.

“We strongly urge you to include the House provision that prohibits
military support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war” against the Houthi
rebels in Yemen, the lawmakers said in a letter obtained by The Washington
Post that was signed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), as well as Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah),
and Reps. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Matt Gaetz
(R-Fla.) and dozens of others.

“Inclusion of this amendment would ensure that our men and women in uniform
are not involved in a war which has never been authorized by Congress, and
continues to undermine rather than advance U.S. national security
interests,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter is addressed to the top Republicans and Democrats on the armed
services committees, who will negotiate a range of disparities between the
House and Senate versions of the bill, including other Democratic
amendments to reverse President Trump’s ban on transgender troops and
prohibit spending military money on military parades and Trump’s properties.

The lawmakers’ appeal comes as the Yemen conflict drags on in its fifth
year, with the civilian death toll rising and feuding among factions allied
with key U.S. partners complicating prospects for peace.

The Trump administration has urged a swift halt to clashes in southern
Yemen between forces affiliated with the internationally recognized
government, which is closely linked to Saudi Arabia, and forces backed by
the kingdom’s chief partner in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. officials have long called for a political solution to end the war,
but the Trump administration also has increasingly framed the conflict in
terms of a larger regional standoff with Iran.

Mounting congressional frustration with Saudi Arabia — fueled partly by the
killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/06/read-jamal-khashoggis-columns-for-the-washington-post/>
at
the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/un-investigator-calls-for-probing-saudi-officials-in-khashoggi-killing/2019/06/19/cf5ee594-91f3-11e9-aadb-74e6b2b46f6a_story.html>
—
has resulted in a series of bipartisan legislative steps over the past year
but has failed to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in the war.

Pentagon officials argue that a decision last year to halt aerial refueling
of Saudi jets has limited military support. But the United States continues
to share certain intelligence on Yemen with Saudi Arabia, even as it moves
ahead with massive arms sales to the kingdom.

The House-passed version would also restrict U.S. maintenance of Saudi
flight operations.

Saudi officials have said they would prefer to press ahead with Washington
as its primary military partner but that they can rely on other nations if
needed.

Pentagon officials see Saudi Arabia as an important regional partner and a
counterweight to Iran. But the stalemated conflict in Yemen, which has
killed tens of thousands of people and thrust millions into near-famine
conditions, has prompted widespread humanitarian criticism of the United
States and Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, Yemeni medical workers pulled bodies from the bombed-out
detention center run by the rebels that was hit Sunday. Dozens of people
were wounded and more than 100 people were “presumed killed” in the attack, the
International Committee of the Red Cross
<https://twitter.com/icrc_ye/status/1168086056132055040?s=11> said.

Saudi officials said the facility was being used as an arms deport, and a
spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Col. Turki al-Maliki, called it a
“legitimate military target.”

“Now we must use Congress’s power of the purse to block every nickel of
taxpayer money from going to assist the Saudi dictatorship as it bombs and
starves civilians in Yemen,” Sanders said in a statement.
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