FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

---

Senate Nearly Ready To Vote To Stop Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, Seeks End to Yemen War

Dec. 11, 2018 (EIRNS)—There could very well be a floor vote in the U.S. Senate this week, invoking Congress’s war powers to stop the sale of U.S. weapons to the Saudis and otherwise stop U.S. support for the war in Yemen.

“We have three different efforts underway, all of which have a lot of momentum,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) told Defense News. “I think it’s really good to have all this happening at the same time. I think it sends a really strong signal.” The resolution that will be debated this week is expected to have the 51 votes needed to advance to the floor and it may even be opened to related amendments, which, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the 2nd ranking member of the Democratic caucus, said could mean that “we could finally have the most serious foreign policy debate we’ve had in the Senate in two years, maybe six.”

The current momentum of the effort is attributed to CIA Director Gina Haspel’s briefing to a group of Senators, last week, in which she presented the CIA’s evidence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the Khashoggi murder. But Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the resolutions’ co-sponsors, said that this is not the primary reason. “The most important thing is to stop the slaughter of civilians inside Yemen,” Murphy said. “I’m upset about Khashoggi, but I’m much more upset about the fact that this administration has allowed thousands of kids to die inside of Yemen. We need to end that war.”