US lawmakers on Wednesday said that they expect the US Congress to pass a resolution ending US involvement in the Yemen war, which would force US President Donald Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency in order to continue supporting the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.
Republican and Democratic senators and representatives said they were reintroducing a war powers resolution that passed the US Senate 56-41 in December last year, a rebuke of Trump amid anger at Saudi Arabia not just over civilian deaths in Yemen, but also the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate in Turkey.
The lawmakers — an alliance of progressive Democrats and Republican constitutional conservatives — deplored the “humanitarian disaster” in Yemen, but also said they wanted the Congress to reassert its constitutional authority to decide whether the US should be involved in military conflict.
“That decision has never been debated and discussed and voted on and approved by Congress,” Republican US Senator Mike Lee, one of the measure’s sponsors, told a news conference.
The US has supported the Saudi-led air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen with mid-air refueling support, intelligence and targeting assistance.
Opponents of the resolution are reluctant to risk disrupting the strategic US relationship with Saudi Arabia, seen as an essential counterweight in the Middle East to Iran, arch-enemy of close US ally Israel.
The embassy of Yemen in Washington issued a statement opposing the resolution, saying it would “deliver a massive victory to Iran” if Washington were to stop supporting the coalition.
December’s Senate vote was the first time either chamber of Congress backed a resolution to withdraw US forces from a military engagement under the War Powers Act. That law, passed in 1973, limits the president’s ability to commit US forces to potential hostilities without congressional approval.
The measure never went further in December, because the Republicans who then controlled the US House of Representatives did not allow a vote in that chamber before the end of the year.
However, the measure’s sponsors insisted it had helped lead to a ceasefire in Yemen that began in December.
“Sometimes we underestimate how much influence we have,” Democratic US Representative Ro Khanna said.
The Democrats now have a House majority, but Trump’s fellow Republicans have increased their edge in the Senate by two seats to hold a 53-47 margin.
It would take a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress to overcome a Trump veto. Trump had threatened a veto in December.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he still intended to do so.
“President Trump is going to have to make a decision,” said US Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
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