US Congress seeks path forward on Saudi rebuke
WASHINGTON: Congress will consider measures next week to reprimand the Saudi crown prince, punish those involved in journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and curtail US support for the Yemen war, senior American lawmakers said Thursday.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she expects a briefing on Yemen and Saudi Arabia by national security officials to the entire House, as senators received last month, followed by an intelligence briefing specifically on Crown Prince Mohammed Salman.
His alleged role in ordering the murder of Khashoggi, a palace critic, is at the heart of a burning controversy in Washington and internationally, with key Republican senators saying after a closed- door briefing by CIA director Gina Haspel that they firmly believe he was complicit in the killing.
“I’m hoping that we will have the director of the CIA as well as the other leaders of the intelligence community,” Pelosi said of upcoming briefings for House members.
Pelosi, who will likely be House speaker when the Democraticmajority Congress opens in January, said there is bipartisan support for a measure seeking to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition conducting a brutal war in Yemen.
The United Nations has called the conflict the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis.
“Let’s see after the briefing where we go,” Pelosi said.
Senators are taking multiple paths of action, including a resolution seeking to curtail US war powers in Yemen that cleared a significant first hurdle last week and is sure to get a subsequent vote. — AFP