US Senate votes to stop American support for war in Yemen and declares MbS guilty of Khashoggi murder

The US Senate voted on Thursday to approve a resolution calling for an end to United States involvement in the Saudi-UAE-led military campaign in Yemen, setting the stage for a potential showdown next year between Congress and President Donald Trump over US military support for Saudi Arabia.

The Senate also approved a resolution saying that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is responsible for the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

US politicians have grown increasingly outraged as the number of civilians killed in Yemen by Saudi and UAE air attacks using US-made weapons has risen dramatically in the past two years. The Saudi-UAE coalition launched an intervention in 2015 through a massive air campaign targeting Houthi rebels. 

The final vote of the Yemen resolution was 56-41, with seven Republicans breaking with their party to vote in support of the measure. The Yemen resolution had been tabled by the Senate in a 55-44 vote on March 20, but after the October 2 killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, widespread anger in Washington prompted politicians to bring the Yemen measure forward.
Trump administration officials had urged Congress not to undermine the Pentagon's ability to support Saudi Arabia.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis described the conflict in private briefings for legislators as part of a larger regional contest with Iran. The Pentagon announced a suspension on November 9 of US aerial refuelling of Saudi and UAE combat aircraft.

Due to tactics used by the Republican leadership in the House, the lower chamber will not take up the Senate measure before adjourning, leaving the matter unresolved until the new Congress convenes in January.
Yemeni factions meeting this week in Rimbo, Sweden agreed to a ceasefire in the key port city of Hodeidah and to exchange of 16,000 prisoners. The Houthis agreed to relinquish control of Yemeni ports, allowing desperately needed international aid to flow.
For the first time in 45 years, the Senate Yemen resolution invoked the War Powers Act, a law passed by Congress to curtail President Richard Nixon's continued deployment of US forces in the Vietnam War. The 1973 law provides that Congress, which holds sole authority to declare war, may restrain the president from deploying US forces by the passage of a joint resolution. 
"Warfare involves a lot more than a single battlefield and lines of military personnel firing against each other with guns," Senator Mike Lee of Utah, the leading Republican sponsor of the resolution, told Al Jazeera in a Capitol Hill press conference.
"There are a lot of aspects of modern warfare that involve cyber activity and there are certainly a lot of aspects of modern warfare that involve reconnaissance, surveillance, target selection and things like midair refuelling."