p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px Helvetica; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0433ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0433ff} span.s3 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0433ff; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0433ff} WASHINGTON — A convergence of factors, including the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and growing fears of massive famine in Yemen, could drive Congress to press the Donald Trump administration to force the Saudis to end their war in Yemen, former US officials who work on the region said this week.

“Now is the time for Congress to take the big step and compel an end to this war,” Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and National Security Council official and columnist for Al-Monitor’s Gulf Pulse, said at a Brookings Institution forum today.

While Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has linked his prestige with the war in Yemen he championed as a new Saudi defense minister in 2015, his reputation has been badly damaged in Washington because of his widely presumed role in authorizing the plot that the Saudis now admit killed Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul Oct. 2.

“There is an opportunity in all this for us,” Riedel said. “Refocus attention on Yemen and on quitting the war as quickly as possible.”