Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has said there will be a vote on a war powers resolution next week that would end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, according to reporting by the Intercept today.
The move comes just two months after reports emerged that the Biden administration began a process of reevaluating the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia after the Gulf kingdom refused to increase oil production amid rising prices due in part to the war in Ukraine.
A UN-brokered ceasefire between the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels in Yemen expired in October but violence between the warring parties has been relatively sporadic since.
Congress passed a war powers resolution on Yemen with bipartisan backing in 2019, only to have it vetoed by then-President Trump. Sanders told the Intercept that he believes his resolution this time will also have enough votes to pass the senate. Lawmakers in the House introduced a similar measure back in June.
“Enacting the Yemen WPR would fundamentally shift the U.S.-Saudi relationship by ending U.S. support for Saudi aggression in Yemen,” Hassan El-Tayyab of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the Quincy Institute’s Annelle Sheline recently wrote in RS. “It would also demonstrate to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that U.S. support is not unconditional: if he pursues policies contrary to U.S. interests, Washington will reconsider security guarantees and military support to Saudi Arabia.”
A coalition of groups, including the Quincy Institute, will release a letter this week calling on Congress to vote on the Yemen war powers resolution during the lame duck session.
