The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday (February 13, 2019) on a draft resolution banning the participation of US troops in the war in Yemen.
The draft was overwhelmingly approved, with 248 votes in favor, against 177 against the draft resolution, which was also opposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump. The draft resolution will now go to a Senate vote, where it is expected to have the support of most members, although the White House had threatened to veto the resolution if approved by the House and Senate.
If approved, it would be the first time in decades that Congress has used its powers to pull US troops out of a war zone with a united and rare movement of the two parties, the Democratic one that controls the majority of the House of Representatives and the Republican who controls the Senate, The war in the presidency shows the wrath of lawmakers from the firm support of President Donald Trump of Saudi Arabia, even after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was writing a column in the Washington Post.
The vote, which condemned the four-year-old war in Yemen that claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and caused a devastating famine, will pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to respond. Eighteen Republican deputies - most of them hardliners within the Freedom Caucus - voted with the Democratic majority.
Last December, the Senate passed a 56-to-41-vote resolution in an astonishing rebuke to President Trump and his administration´s defense of Saudi Arabia. But the former Congress ended that resolution, after the leadership of the Republican House of Representatives (former Speaker of the House Paul Reyn) blocked the vote. However, dozens of Democrats eased the blow when they split to support a Republican amendment to allow continued sharing of intelligence with Saudi Arabia when it "suits the national security interest of the United States."
The passage of the Senate on the war resolution in Yemen could prompt President Trump to use the veto for the first time during his presidency, and will come after Republicans have registered dissatisfaction with other foreign policy issues, such as the president´s plan to withdraw US troops from Syria, about 2,000 US troops As well as the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and its threats to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
On Wednesday, February 13, a group of bipartisan members of the Senate gave new sanctions to Moscow requiring the US Secretary of State to clarify "whether the Russian Federation meets the criteria of classification as a state sponsor of terrorism."
"This is their chance to send a message to the Saudis that their behavior on Khashoggi´s case and blatant disregard for human rights is not in line with the American way of doing things," said Democratic Rep. Roy Khana, the main sponsor of the bill, in an interview. Doing business and not in line with American values, "adding that he was" relieved "that Congress had finally moved on the decision he made for the first time in 2017.
The House resolution is a rare use of the 1973 War Powers Act, which gave Congress the ability to force US military forces to withdraw in the absence of a formal declaration of war. The authorities, which emerged almost immediately after the Vietnam War, were not used as lawmakers refused to intervene on politically sensitive issues such as war, peace and troop support. But the war in Yemen looks different, and senators who sponsor their own decision to vote quickly are expected to act as lawmakers from both parties complain about the administration´s response to Saudi Arabia´s role in Khashoggi´s killing.
Democratic Senator Christopher Murphy, one of the sponsors, said he expected a vote "within the next 30 days."
The White House deliberately threatened to block the decision at the beginning of the week. Administration officials said in a statement on administration policy that "the basis of the joint decision is flawed" because the United States provided only "limited support to the member states of the Saudi-led coalition" .
