WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Republican-controlled Senate voted 56 to 41 to pass a bipartisan resolution calling for an end to U.S. military support to the Saudi-led coalition in the destructive war in Yemen.
The resolution, sponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., invokes the War Powers Act.
Republican Senators Susan Collins, R-Maine, Steve Daines, R-Mont., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Todd Young, R-Ind., Rand Paul, R-Ken., Jerry Moran, R-Kans., and Lee joined all 49 members of the Democratic caucus to pass the resolution, while Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., abstained from voting.
Although the resolution is not likely to pass the House, it's the first time in 45 years the Senate has voted to withdraw forces from a war Congress didn't approve.
The Senate also agreed by unanimous consent to a resolution from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, holding him responsible for the murder of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey.
Both actions are a major rebuke to President Donald Trump's reluctance to blame Prince Salman, also known as MBS, in the killing of Khashoggi, who was highly critical of the conservative Saudi royal regime.
Addressing a press conference after the Senate vote, Sanders said that 45 years after the passage of the War Powers Act, the Senate has come together to use that authority and say that the constitutional responsibility for war rests with the Congress - not the president.
'This is an historic day,' according to Sanders.
Four years of Saudi-led war in Yemen have resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises, killing about 10,000 people and threatening up to 20 million people with starvation.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX