“The U.S. should be doing everything we can to support the ceasefire, not undermining it. Disgusting!”
That was how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded to news on Thursday that the Trump administration teamed up with Saudi Arabia to delay a United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the Hodeidah ceasefire agreement reached last week.
Arguing that the beseiged people of Yemen can’t afford any more delays, Sanders noted that “85,000 children have already starved to death” and “millions more face the prospect of famine and death” due to the years-long U.S.-backed Saudi assault.
As the Guardian reported, Yemeni government officials warned that the Hodeidah ceasefire could quickly collapse if a Security Council resolution endorsing the agreement is not adopted soon.
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“A retired Dutch general, Patrick Cammaert, is on his way to Hodeidah to oversee a two-stage withdrawal of all troops from Hodeidah, but without the legal mandate of a U.N. resolution, [he] is largely powerless,” the Guardian noted.
While the U.S. is reportedly objecting to the resolution because it doesn’t contain reference to Iran’s role in arming of the Houthi rebels—a role that critics say is often exaggerated by the American press and foreign policy establishment—the Saudis are insisting that the resolution cannot contain any mention of U.N. war crimes investigations into the kingdom’s bombardment of Yemen.
In a tweet responding to the U.S. and Saudi Arabia’s efforts to delay the resolution, Oxfam America declared, “The U.N. Security Council needs to adopt a resolution to save lives now in Yemen because the people of Yemen can’t wait. State Department, stop blocking for Saudi Arabia/UAE and get out of the way.”
As Common Dreams reported, the Senate last week overwhelmingly passed a War Powers Resolution that would withdraw U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia’s assault on Yemen, a move celebrated by anti-war groups as a historic victory that sets the stage for future peace efforts.
But, thanks to a handful of Democrats, the House GOP succeeded in cramming a rule into the sprawling farm bill that will likely prevent the Yemen resolution from reaching the floor for a vote in this session of Congress.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)—who joined Sanders and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) in sponsoring the resolution—vowed to keep pushing to end U.S. support for Saudi atrocities in Yemen in the next Congress.
“We’ll take it back up again next year,” Murphy declared following the Senate vote. “It’s more important now than ever, given the humanitarian nightmare that is happening inside Yemen.”
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