WASHINGTON -- The Senate cast two historic votes Thursday to end U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war effort in Yemen and condemn the Saudi crown prince as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, delivering clear political rebukes of President Donald Trump's continued embrace of the kingdom.
The unanimous vote to hold Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for Khashoggi's murder pushes back on Trump's continued defense of Mohammed's denials.
It also puts significant pressure on leaders in the House -- where the president's Saudi policy is a much more partisan issue -- to allow members to cast a similar vote condemning the crown prince before the end of the year.
Regardless, the two Senate votes Thursday set the stage for broader strategic debates about Saudi policy when Congress regroups next year.
Just before the Senate voted to condemn Mohammed over Khashoggi's killing, senators voted 56-41 to end U.S. participation in the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen by invoking the War Powers Resolution -- the first time a chamber of Congress has done so.
More importantly, the 56-vote majority suggests that Saudi critics will still have a majority next year to challenge Trump on Saudi policy.
Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to pass the resolution: Mike Lee of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Todd Young of Indiana.
Republicans and Democrats have said they plan to pursue sanctions against Saudi officials involved in Khashoggi's murder, to stop the transfer of nondefensive weapons until Saudi forces withdraw from Yemen, and other measures to restrain a crown prince whom many lawmakers see as out of control.
"Today we tell the despotic regime in Saudi Arabia that we will not be part of their military adventurism," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who co-sponsored the Yemen resolution with Lee. "Today, for the first time, we are going to go forward ... and tell the president of the United States, and any president ... that the constitutional responsibility of making war rests in the United States Congress, not the White House."
The resolution condemning Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi's slaying was introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Both Republicans opposed the Yemen resolution and voted against it.
McConnell said senators have grave concerns about Khashoggi's killing, but "we also want to preserve a 70-year partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia, and we want to ensure it continues to serve American interests and stabilizes a dangerous and critical region."
But McConnell urged colleagues to back the resolution on Khashoggi's death. Its passage, he said, provided "a clear and unambiguous message about how we feel about what happened to this journalist."
The votes came just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis briefed House lawmakers -- a closed meeting from which Republicans and Democrats emerged with very different responses to Saudi Arabia and its crown prince.
A recent CIA assessment found that Mohammed was probably responsible for the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.
"They have to be held responsible," Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said after the briefing, referring to Mohammed and Saudi King Salman.
But there remain Republicans in the House who defend the crown prince -- and those who think that even if he should be called out for his involvement in Khashoggi's death, the punishment should stop there.
"We recognize killing journalists is absolutely evil and despicable, but to completely realign our interests in the Middle East as a result of this, when for instance the Russians kill journalists ... Turkey imprisons journalists?" Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said. "It's not a sinless world out there."
That stands in sharp contrast to the Senate, where several Republicans have been encouraging a broad response to Saudi Arabia over not just Khashoggi's killing and the Yemen war, but the kingdom's blockade in Qatar, its recent detainment of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a slate of human rights abuses they say have compromised the U.S.-Saudi alliance.
Trump has refused to condemn Mohammed for the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen. Pompeo has echoed Trump's stance in public interviews and privately, lawmakers said.
"All we heard today was more disgraceful ducking and dodging by the secretary," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, who supports bringing up a War Powers resolution in the House to cut off U.S. support for the Saudis' Yemen war effort. On Wednesday, the House narrowly voted to block rank-and-file members from demanding a floor vote on any such Yemen resolution, after leaders slipped a rule change to do so into an unrelated agricultural bill.
House leaders also met with CIA Director Gina Haspel on Wednesday to hear the details of Khashoggi's slaying. But they emerged offering few details about the briefing -- or about what steps House Democrats would take, once they assume the majority in January, to pursue more punitive measures against Saudi Arabia, beyond holding hearings.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Republican and Democratic lawmakers are making plans to capitalize on the Yemen resolution vote with further measures next year -- including sanctions on Mohammed and the other Saudis implicated in Khashoggi's killing, and an order to halt all nondefensive weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia until hostilities in Yemen cease.
"The current relationship with Saudi Arabia is not working for America," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday, in comments to reporters about what next steps senators planned to take to address Saudi policy. "I'm never going to let this go until things change in Saudi Arabia."
U.N. ANNOUNCEMENT
The Senate debate came as the United Nations secretary general announced Thursday that Yemen's warring sides have agreed to a province-wide cease-fire and withdrawal of troops in Hodeida, a contested Red Sea port city. The agreement came during peace talks in Sweden.
The brutal 4-year-old civil war pits the internationally recognized Yemeni government, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Iran-backed rebels known as Houthis.
The agreement includes a withdrawal of combatants to outside the city limits within two weeks and was praised by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as "real progress" to alleviate Yemen's suffering and show commitment to a political solution.
The truce, along with a mass prisoner exchange agreement reached earlier, were seen as important first steps toward further talks in January aimed at drawing down a stalemated conflict that has killed thousands of people and left millions more in misery in the Arab world's poorest country.
The cease-fire and pull-back of forces eases fears that the battle for Hodeida could force an outright closure of its port, which would have been disastrous, since it is the main entry point for food and other humanitarian aid for millions of Yemenis. Throughout months of fighting around Hodeida, the port remained open, although movement of aid out of the city to the rest of the country was slowed because it had to avoid the front lines.
But the deal might not mean an immediate or significant difference in easing the suffering of Yemenis. Ships bringing supplies into Hodeida must still undergo strict searches by U.N. monitors to ensure no weapons are aboard, a process that has delayed deliveries.
Once in the country, it is a struggle to get food to families who need it because of corruption or mismanagement. More than 22 million of Yemen's 29 million need humanitarian aid, and the most desperate -- over 8 million -- have no food other than international relief supplies.
Guterres announced the truce during peace talks in Sweden, where he thanked the delegations.
"It will improve the living conditions for millions of Yemenis," he said.
"The fact that we came to an agreement on Hodeida, that many would consider the most difficult of the problems on the table, give us the hope that this process will now be moving step by step and that we'll be able to overcome all the obstacles that we face," Guterres told reporters after a closing ceremony in a castle in the town of Rimbo outside Stockholm.
In a sign that the talks appeared to make more progress than previous rounds, Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani and Houthi delegation head Mohamed Abdelsalam shook hands at the closing event.
The U.N.-sponsored talks began last week with low expectations but saw some progress with the agreement of a prisoner swap involving about 15,000 captives, scheduled to occur by Jan. 20.
Information for this article was contributed by Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post; by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times; and by David Keyton, Brian Rohan, Mary Clare Jalonick, Lisa Mascaro, Laurie Kellman and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/14/2018