WASHINGTON | Senior administration officials urged senators Wednesday to keep supporting U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, but it remained unclear whether their message would dissuade lawmakers who want to punish the kingdom for its role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Senate was set to vote later Wednesday on ending U.S. assistance for the conflict that human rights advocates say is wreaking havoc on the country and subjecting civilians to indiscriminate bombing. After a closed-door briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis, several senators said they were unsatisfied and likely to back the resolution to halt U.S. support for the war.
The White House issued a veto threat for that resolution, even as Pompeo and Mattis spoke with the senators. Emerging from the briefing, Pompeo said the vote would be “poorly timed” as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict were underway.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that “some kind of response” was needed from the United States for the Saudis’ role in Khashoggi’s gruesome death. While U.S. intelligence officials have concluded the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, must have at least known of the plot, the CIA’s findings have not been made public and President Donald Trump has equivocated over who was to blame.
Pompeo said after the briefing that there was “no direct reporting” connecting the crown prince to the murder. In the briefing, he argued that the war in Yemen would be “a hell of a lot worse” if the United States were not involved.
A similar resolution fell six votes short of passage earlier this year, but some senators apparently were ready to switch. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he would prefer an appropriate response from the administration, but barring that, “It’s very likely I will support getting on it.”
Corker said in the past he has “laid in the railroad tracks to keep us from doing things that I believe are against our national interest as it relates to Saudi Arabia.” But he said he believes the Senate should “figure out some way for us to send the appropriate message to Saudi Arabia that appropriately displays American values and American national interests.”
He said the crown prince “owns this death. He owns it.”
McConnell made similar remarks Tuesday, saying that “what obviously happened, as basically certified by the CIA, is completely abhorrent to everything the United States holds dear and stands for in the world.”