A bipartisan group of senators emerged frustrated from a briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saudi Arabia policy Wednesday, with some even saying the classified meeting convinced them to buck the administration by publicly opposing the longtime U.S. ally.
The Senate is considering a vote on a resolution that would end U.S. support for Saudi Arabiaโs proxy war with Iran in Yemen. The contentious issue of the Yemen war was further complicated by the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA, have reportedly concluded that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman ordered the murder, while President Trump and other administration officials have cast doubt on that conclusion.
Critics have excoriated the Trump administration for failing to deliver a strong response to the Saudi government, which has denied responsibility for Khashoggiโs murder in a series of shifting explanations as public outrage mounts.
Pompeo called the Senate resolution โpoorly timedโ and stressed that there is โno direct reportingโ connecting the crown prince to Khashoggiโs murder. The U.S. is โright on the cuspโ of negotiating a ceasefire in Yemen, and the resolution in question would โundermineโ that and โencourage the Iranians.โ
The secretary of state also accused critics of the administrationโs Saudi Arabia policy of hypocrisy, saying the same fault-finders backed former president Obamaโs generous financial aid to Iran, a state sponsor of terror.
โWhere was this echo chamber, where were these avatars of human rights, when Mr. Obama gave the mullahs pallets of cash to carry out their work as the worldโs largest state sponsor of terrorism?โ Pompeo said in a strongly-worded op-ed published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal.
The Trump administrationโs goal of strengthening Americaโs alliance with the Saudi kingdom โisnโt popular in the salons of Washington,โ Pompeo wrote, but โdegrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies.โ
Democratic senator Chris Coons told reporters following the briefing that he will switch his vote to support the resolution, which requires the withdrawal of all U.S. troops in โor affectingโ Yemen within 30 days except those fighting al-Qaeda. โI left the briefing unsatisfied,โ he said, calling it a โsignificant mistakeโ that CIA Director Gina Haspel did not attend the briefing.
Republican senator Jeff Flake said he would vote to pull out of Yemen as well and concurred with Coons that โa lot of us were frustratedโ that Haspel was not present for the briefing.
โIโm all for realpolitik,โ Flake said of Pompeoโs objection that a withdrawal from Yemen would encourage Iranian misbehavior. โBut that suggests that you accept the truth. And I think we all know what the truth is: that if [the crown prince] wasnโt directly involved, he certainly knew of it.โ
โIt is outrageous that we are willing to turn our eye away from such a murder because we have quote-unquote interests,โ said Democratic senator Bob Menenedez, adding that he heard โnothing convincingโ against the resolution.
Democratic senator Dick Durbin claimed the White House gave the direction that Haspel would not participate in the briefing and said the information provided was โinteresting but not persuasive.โ
Independent senator Bernie Sanders, who sponsored the Yemen resolution, called Saudi Arabiaโs government a โdespotic, dishonest dictatorshipโ and said the situation in Yemen is the โworst humanitarian crisis on earth.โ
Republican senator Bob Corker said he would likely vote in favor of the resolution, but emphasized that it is amendable afterwards.
โItโs his agency that killed this journalist, and theyโve taken no ownership of that,โ Corker said of the crown prince, calling him โout of control.โ
Senator Mike Lee argued that the war in Yemen was never approved by Congress when it should have been.
โThere shouldnโt be,โ the Utah Republican said of resistance on his partyโs side to Sandersโs resolution. โWeโve all sworn an oath to uphold, protect, and defend the Constitution.โ







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