The US Senate voted in favor of ending military aid to Saudi Arabia in the conflict in Yemen after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The resolution passed by the legislators blamed for the murder the crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman al Saud. Another document calls on the US President to withdraw troops from Yemen.
56 senators voted for the resolution on Yemen, 41 were against. The resolution is Advisory in nature and may be blocked by the President. Donald Trump said he was going to block it.
The document is unlikely to be approved by the House of Representatives of the US Congress. Given this, observers call it a “symbolic protest” against Trump’s position.
Immediately after this resolution was unanimously adopted another in which the senators blamed for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to the crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and called on Saudi authorities to punish the perpetrators.
What did the senators do?
The resolution on the Yemeni conflict calls on the President to withdraw all US military forces involved in it, except those who fight directly with radical Islamists.
The authors of the document — a group of senators, which includes representatives of both American parties.
The resolution on the murder of Khashoggi, according to the senators, contains rather tough language.
“The US Senate unanimously declared that crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. That’s a strong statement. I hope it speaks to our values, ” said Bob Corker, Chairman of the foreign relations Committee.
The Senate’s position goes against President Trump’s policy towards the Kingdom: the White house refused to accept the CIA’s assessment, which concluded that the journalist could have been killed by order of Prince Mohammed.
Independent Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders called the adoption of the resolution a historic moment.
“Today we are telling the oppressive regime of Saudi Arabia that we will not participate in its military adventures,” he said.
Sanders, one of the authors of the document, hopes that he will be able to pass the house of representatives of Congress after control over it in January next year will go to the Democrats.
The white house opposed the adoption of the resolution, stating that relations with Saudi Arabia are extremely important to counter the threat posed by Iran in the region.
What the CIA told
The issue of the murder of the journalist and the responsibility of the Saudi authorities for him began to be sharply discussed after the head of the CIA, Gina Haspel, last week told the members of the Senate Committee on international relations everything that her office knows about the murder. The briefing was held behind closed doors. Its content can only be judged by the statements of the senators themselves after a meeting with Haspel and her team.
The CIA said that Prince Mohammed was chatting with the leader of the group who killed and dismembered Khashoggi. Apparently, Haspel managed to convince the senators.
“You need to deliberately ignore the facts, so as not to come to the conclusion that all this was organized and arranged by people who are subordinate to Prince Salman,” — commented on the statements of the head of the CIA Republican Lindsay Graham, who in the past has repeatedly supported trump’s initiatives.
Graham then added that he could not support the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its participation in the war in Yemen, while Prince Salman remains in power.
