Senate Democrats urge Biden to pressure Saudi Arabia over Yemen blockade tactics
The Senate letter called on President Joe Biden to use diplomatic and economic leverage to compel the Saudi-led coalition to lift restrictions on imports into Yemen.
A group of Senate Democrats say the Biden administration should use the leverage that military cooperation and arms sales provide to pressure Saudi Arabia into ending its blockade tactics in war-torn Yemen.
“The United States has diplomatic and economic leverage to compel Saudi Arabia to end its callous blockade of Yemen and we must use it before more lives are needlessly lost,” 16 US senators wrote to President Joe Biden in a letter provided to Al-Monitor.
The letter, which was led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, says the failure to allow the unfettered delivery of food, fuel and other humanitarian aid through the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah “should have a direct impact on our relationship with Saudi Arabia.”
Sources of leverage with Riyadh, the senators wrote, include “pending weapons sales, military cooperation, the provision of maintenance for war planes and spare parts, as well as U.S.-Saudi ties more broadly."
