Sanders eyeing Yemen war powers resolution vote ‘hopefully next week’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he could introduce a war powers resolution soon that would block U.S. support for the war in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia.

In an interview with The Intercept published Tuesday, Sanders said he could bring the resolution to the floor “hopefully” by next week and that he believes he has the votes for the measure.

The war powers resolution is considered privileged and can be brought to the floor without approval from Senate leadership after a certain amount of time has passed. Sanders told The Intercept the time has already elapsed for the resolution.

The Vermont senator previously sponsored a war powers resolution to end U.S. involvement in Yemen in 2019, which was vetoed by former President Trump. He introduced another resolution to block support over the summer along with a companion resolution from House lawmakers.

“This war has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today and it is past time to end U.S. complicity in those horrors,” Sanders said in a July statement.

Yemen’s civil war, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions more starving and suffering from disease, resumed in October after a six-month cease-fire.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have been fighting with the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, since 2014.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation, which advocates for global peace, led 100 other groups this week in urging Congress to pass a resolution ending U.S. support in the war.

“We call on all members of Congress to say ‘no’ to Saudi Arabia’s war of aggression by fully ending all U.S. support for a conflict that has caused such immense bloodshed and human suffering,” the organizations wrote in a Wednesday letter to Congress.

If introduced next week, the war powers resolution would come to the floor amid fracturing relations between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

The Biden administration courted Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of oil producing alliance OPEC+, for months this year amid soaring gas prices in the U.S., only to see OPEC slash production by 2 million barrels beginning in November.

Reportedly irate administration officials and Democrats on Capitol Hill have floated the idea of a response to Saudi Arabia for the oil production cuts. But a U.S. federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after the Biden administration granted the Saudi leader immunity.

In his first month in office, Biden ended U.S. support for Saudi-led offensives in Yemen, but critics point out the U.S. continues to sell arms to Saudi Arabia and share intelligence.

The war powers resolution introduced over the summer by Sanders in the Senate and a bipartisan coalition of House lawmakers would end U.S. intelligence sharing, logistical support and American direct military personnel support for Saudi-led forces.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is also holding a public briefing on the Yemen war next week.