Will Congress Finally Stop U.S. Support for Saudi’s War in Yemen?

Peace activists have been urging Sen. Bernie Sanders to bring the Yemen War Powers resolution to a floor vote for many months. He is now saying he will do so as soon as this week, the Intercept reports.s-Frantz asked Ned Price, one of the panelists and the spokesperson for the State Department, how he, as a fellow gay man, justifies upholding the U.S.-Saudi alliance. Saudi Arabia is well known for its policies that punish homosexuality with death, violate women’s rights, and starve children in Yemen.

ISAAC EVANS-FRANTZ, isaac@actioncorps.org, @theactioncorps

    Isaac Evans-Frantz is with Action Corps, which has focused on Yemen and has helped lead a series of protests on the issue. Most recently, they focused on Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

    The group signed a letter along with 105 other organizations recently in support of the Sanders legislation: “March 26th, 2022, marked the start of the eighth year of the Saudi-led war and blockade on Yemen, which has helped cause the deaths of nearly half a million people and pushed millions more to the edge of starvation. With continued U.S. military support, Saudi Arabia escalated its campaign of collective punishment on the people of Yemen in recent months, making the start of 2022 one of the deadliest time periods of the war.”

    [Note: In 2018 the ACLU voiced objections to a precursor of Sander’s legislation: “The Fatal Flaws in a Congressional Resolution to End U.S. Support for the Saudi-Led Yemen War.” This legislation had passed the Congress during the Trump administration, but was vetoed. It is only now being voted on again.]

    Recently, during the Victory Institute’s International LGBTQ Leaders Conference closing panel, Isaac Evan

   Price didn’t respond specifically to any of the policies, and did not mention the Saudi war in Yemen, but said that we need to keep the Saudis engaged to influence their behavior but not give them a blank check and a “bear hug” like the last administration. Evans-Frantz responded: “So, fist pumps, not bear hugs?” — a reference to Biden’s fistbump with Saudi monarch Mohammed bin Salman.

   Last week, a U.S. judge dismissed a case against the Saudi crown prince over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini,  David Zupan,