Iran looms large as Congress casts Yemen war vote
The Senate voted on US support for the Saudi-led war against the Houthis for the first time since the war began three years ago.
Congress held a heated debate on how to confront Iran in the Donald Trump era today as the Senate held its first debate and vote on US participation in the Saudi-led intervention against the Houthis in Yemen.
By a vote of 55-44, the Senate voted to kill a bipartisan effort to end US support for an aerial campaign that has killed thousands of civilians over the past three years. While proponents of the measure decried the humanitarian toll and lack of congressional oversight, the specter of Iran loomed over the debate.
“The Trump administration has tried to justify our involvement in the Yemen war as necessary to push back on Iran,” bill sponsor Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said ahead of the vote. “While Iran’s support for Houthi insurgents is of serious concern for all of us, the truth is that this war has increased, not decreased, the opportunities for Iranian interference.”
Others sharply disagreed.
