Yemen War Bringing ‘World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis’
Congress rarely gets outraged over an internecine war in a distant land where American troops are not bleeding and dying. But in a rare exception, lawmakers have become deeply troubled over the Pentagon’s role in Yemen’s civil war—a conflict that has eviscerated the civilian population, provoked a deadly famine and ignited what health officials are calling the worst cholera outbreak in recorded history.
For the first time since the war began in 2015, U.S. lawmakers are taking concrete steps to halt or tightly restrict weapons sales to their allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—the leaders behind an Arab coalition fighting Yemen’s rebels, who are seen as proxies for a common enemy, Iran. Much of the damage from the war, independent observers say, has been caused by Saudi and UAE airstrikes using U.S. and British warplanes and munitions, leading human rights groups to accuse Washington and London of complicity in Yemen’s agony.
Amid such accusations, Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, in late June blocked the Trump administration’s proposed $2 billion sale of smart bombs to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. (Senate rules allow any member to hold up
