The US Senate took a defiant stance against President Donald Trump’s White House on Wednesday, advancing a measure that would end American military support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.
Senators voted 63-37 in favor of the proposal just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had implored them not to curtail US assistance to the Saudi military, arguing that pulling back would worsen the war.
The vote was a striking departure from earlier this year, when the measure failed, and marks a new bipartisan desire in the Senate for Trump’s administration to take a harder line on Saudi Arabia.
The procedural vote signals a break between leading Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump. It sets up a highly public legislative fight beginning next week over the US’s role in the Yemen civil war and by extension, the US’s strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia in the war.
The timing of the Senate vote was prompted by the killing of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey, which CIA analysts have tied to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The president and his top aides have said there is no “direct” evidence linking Prince Mohammed to the murder.
Source: Agencies
