WASHINGTON
— The Senate voted resoundingly on Thursday to withdraw American
military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, issuing the latest
in a series of stinging bipartisan rebukes of President Trump for his
defense of the kingdom amid outrage in both parties over Riyadh’s role
in the killing of a dissident journalist.
The
56-to-41 vote was a rare move by the Senate to limit presidential war
powers and send a potent message of official disapproval for a nearly
four-year conflict that has killed thousands of civilians and brought famine to Yemen.
Its immediate effect was largely symbolic, after the House earlier this
week moved to scuttle it, all but assuring that the measure will expire
this year without making it to Mr. Trump’s desk.
But
the action signaled a growing sense of urgency among lawmakers in both
parties to punish Saudi Arabia for its role in the brutal killing of the
journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and to question a decades-old bipartisan
tradition of Washington averting its gaze from human rights abuses and
other wrongdoing by the kingdom in the interest of preserving a
strategically important relationship in the Middle East.
Senators
also approved, by a voice vote, a resolution to hold Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the kingdom’s throne, personally
responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s killing. The nonbinding measure also
calls on Saudi Arabia to “moderate its increasingly erratic foreign
policy” and urges an end to American air-to-air refueling of bombers
operating in Yemen.
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The
United States stopped refueling Saudi warplanes operating in Yemen last
month; the resolution would keep the Pentagon from restarting that
support.
With the moves, senators were breaking forcefully with Mr. Trump, who has maintained steadfast support for Saudi Arabia and Prince Mohammed, even though the C.I.A. has concluded that he directed the grisly assassination of Mr. Khashoggi inside its consulate in Istanbul in October.
Mr.
Trump dug in on that position on Tuesday in an interview with Reuters,
saying he was standing by Prince Mohammed despite the C.I.A.’s findings,
and saying the crown prince was “very strongly in power” in Saudi
Arabia.
“I absolutely believe that if
the crown prince came before a jury here in the United States of
America, he would be convicted guilty in under 30 minutes,” Senator Bob
Corker, a Tennessee Republican who heads the Foreign Relations
Committee, said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “I absolutely believe
he directed it. I believe he monitored it. And I believe he is
responsible for it.”
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Senators
in both parties described the measures as direct responses to the
refusal by Mr. Trump and his administration to hold Saudi Arabia to
account for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, and a way to counter the president’s
own statements that the money to be made from arms sales to the kingdom
was enough to justify turning a blind eye to such a deed.
“We
cannot sweep under the rug the callous disregard for human life and
flagrant violations of international norms the Saudis are showing,” said
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the senior Democrat on the
Foreign Relations Committee.
“Saudi
Arabia has joined a sinister clique along with North Korea, Russia and
Iran in its assassination of Jamal Khashoggi,” Mr. Menendez said. “A few
more weapons purchases cannot buy our silence. It should not buy our
silence, and if the president will not, Congress must act.”
The
votes came only hours after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo implored members of the House of Representatives
during a closed-door briefing to continue the military advising,
logistics support and intelligence that have for years been shared with
Saudi Arabia.
Some lawmakers emerged
from the House meeting frustrated that Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Mattis had
defended the United States’ relationship with the kingdom, which the
White House needs to counter growing Iranian influence in the Middle
East.
Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday after a closed briefing at which he
defended the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia to members of
the House.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times
Image
Representative
David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island, said the two top
administration officials had warned against jeopardizing the Saudi
partnership — given what they described as a continuing, open
investigation into whether Prince Mohammed had, in fact, ordered the
killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who had lived in
the United States.
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“The briefing was a colossal waste of time,” Mr. Cicilline told reporters afterward.
Some senior Republicans offered the administration officials more support.
Representative
Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House, said Mr.
Pompeo and Mr. Mattis had explained details of the investigation into
Mr. Khashoggi’s death, as well as complexities of the relationship with
Saudi Arabia.
“There needs to be action,” Mr. Scalise said, without elaborating. “We need to hold everyone accountable.”
Mr. Mattis and Mr. Pompeo gave a similar briefing to the Senate late last month.
But it broke down as Republican and Democratic senators alike grew
irritated with the administration’s defense of Prince Mohammed.
Gina
Haspel, the C.I.A. director, briefed senior House members on Wednesday,
and lawmakers have said little about it since they left the closed
meeting. Her appearance, ahead of Thursday’s briefing, seemed to defuse
much of the anger the administration officials faced in their briefings
to the Senate in late November to senators. By contrast, senators said
they were even more convinced of Price Mohammed’s role after hearing from her last week.
Mr.
Pompeo slipped out of the Capitol after Thursday’s meeting without
speaking to journalists; he had vigorously defended the administration’s
position to reporters and TV cameras after briefing the Senate.
The
measure limiting war powers in Yemen has been under consideration for
months, but senators sharpened its language two weeks ago with a
procedural vote that signaled their deep frustration over the Trump
administration’s refusal to blame Prince Mohammed for Mr. Khashoggi’s
killing.
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“The
relationship with the crown prince is so toxic, so tainted, so flawed
that I can’t ever see myself doing business with Saudi Arabia in the
future unless there is change there,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican
of South Carolina, told reporters on Wednesday.
But
Mr. Graham and other senators sought to separate the importance of
maintaining a close alliance and partnership with Saudi Arabia, and
punishing Prince Mohammed.
Before the killing and dismemberment of Mr. Khashoggi, most Republicans had supported the military alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
But
in the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, to which the Pentagon has supplied
bombs and intelligence, Saudi airstrikes targeting Houthi rebels have
also killed thousands of people at weddings, funerals and on school buses.
In
late October, Mr. Mattis and Mr. Pompeo had called for a cease-fire in
Yemen, and on Thursday, talks that were brokered by the United Nations
in Sweden appeared to reach an agreement to ease the hostilities.
The
agreement calls for an exchange of up to 15,000 prisoners, the creation
of a humanitarian corridor into the city of Taiz and, importantly, the
withdrawal of troops from Hudaydah. That city, on the Red Sea, is a key
entry point to Yemen for essential products like food and medicine.
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Peace
talks are expected to continue in January in an effort to resolve what
has become a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest nations on Earth.
“The
agreements today mean a lot, not only for the Yemeni people but for
humanity if this can be a starting point for peace and for ending the
humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” António Guterres, the United Nations
secretary general, said at the close of the talks on Thursday.
Mr.
Menendez and Mr. Graham said on Wednesday that they, and other
senators, would introduce legislation early next year to impose even
broader penalties against Saudi Arabia, including suspending weapons
sales and cementing a ban on American refueling of Saudi coalition
aircraft in Yemen.
Additionally,
their plan would impose economic sanctions against people who are found
responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, who blocked humanitarian relief
in Yemen or who supported the Houthi rebels.
While
Thursday’s moves were largely a symbolic, if stinging, slap at the
Trump administration, they previewed what could be a far more
consequential debate after Democrats take over the House in 2019.
“If
Paul Ryan thinks on his way out the door his last public service gift
to humanity is covering up for Saudi Arabia, great, he can make that his
legacy,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, referring to the
procedural gambit by Mr. Ryan, the House speaker, this week to block
the war powers measure from a vote.
“But we’re going to be around next year,” Mr. Kaine said, “and we’ll figure out ways that there can be consequences for this.”
Correction:
An
earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the United
Nations secretary-general. He is António Guterres, not Guterrez.
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