UMAR, Dawud
The US Senate has delivered its strongest rebuke of President Donald Trump by voting to end American involvement in the Yemen war and voting unanimously to hold Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
That measure is intended to hold the Saudi crown prince “accountable” for contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the blockade of Qatar, the jailing of dissidents and Khashoggi’s death.
The resolution to withdraw military support from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, passed by a vote of 56 to 41, underlines the growing divisions between Congress and the White House. The bill was supported by Democrats as well as Republicans. An additional paragraph denouncing Bin Salman was inserted by US Senate Foreign Relations chairman Bob Corker, the representative from Tennessee.
He has been one of the most vocal critics of Trump’s handling of the Khashoggi affair, especially following a CIA briefing last week, which concluded that the Crown Prince authorised the journalist’s murder two months ago in Istanbul.
Earlier this week, Corker said that he expected the Senate to take measures against the Saudi government over the murder and its ongoing military campaign in Yemen, where 20 million people are said to be facing starvation.
The motion states that the US Senate “believes Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman is responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”
Khashoggi, a royal insider who became a critic of Prince Mohammed and began writing for the Washington Post after moving to the United States last year, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in early October.
Saudi Arabia has said the prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh later said Khashoggi had been killed and his body dismembered when negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.
Commentators and human rights groups have been vocally critical of Mohammed bin Salman's leadership and the shortfalls of his reform program, citing a rising number of detentions and alleged torture of clerics, human rights activists and intellectuals, his bombing of Yemen will cause 13 million civilians to starve from the war-induced famine by 2019, the escalation of the Qatar diplomatic crisis, the start of the Lebanon–Saudi dispute, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi among others. Also Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch continue to criticize the Saudi government for its violations of human rights.
Trump would like to maintain a close alliance with Saudi Arabia despite Khashoggi’s death and questioned the alleged role of Saudi Crown Prince, because Saudi Arabia is her close ally, but yet his under pressure from several of his fellow Republicans who have joined Democrats in blaming the crown prince for Khashoggi’s death and they are backing a legislation to respond by ending US support for the Saudi-led war effort in Yemen, imposing new sanctions and stopping weapons sales.
It would be a mistake to fracture that relationship with the Saudis. It’s not based on friendship as much as it’s based on common interests, combating extremism in the Middle East and countering the Iranian threat.
But to become law, the resolution would not just have to pass the Senate this month, but also must pass the House of Representatives and be signed by Trump, neither of which its expected this year. However, backers said Senate passage alone would still be an important step.
“A vote on the resolution is a very tough message to Saudi Arabia that the relationship is changing." As the world watches the 'world police' US as it set to unleash yet another double standard. Would it uphold justice or would reserve it till when a new puppet is required like the case of Saddam Hussein.