In 2017, Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, introduced a measure that became known as the Yemeni War Powers resolution. The goal was to reduce US military support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, which created a humanitarian crisis in the country. At the time, there was very little support on Capitol Hill. Now, the policy appears to have been adopted by the White House.
In an interview with CNN, Khanna called the change “a profound and historic change” that marks a new chapter in the United States’ relations with Saudi Arabia.
“We are being explicit, bold and open to the Saudis, saying: ‘no, this is not a war that we support’,” said the congressman. “Now I think President Biden has made a clear statement that the relationship is no longer what it was.”
Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who has spoken out for an end to American military intervention in Yemen, said in an interview that he believes the move will strengthen US national security, especially becoming the region less volatile as a result.
“The battle space has created openings for the growth of al-Qaeda and ISIS. It was a mistake from the beginning that the US was involved in this war and I am happy that our participation is finally coming to an end,” he said.
Yemen is involved in a civil war of years that pitted a coalition supported by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against Houthi rebels supported by Iran, a Shi’ite political and military organization in northern Yemen. The conflict claimed thousands of civilian lives.
Democrats are optimistic that the Biden government will prioritize diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to end the conflict and point to the fact that career diplomat Timothy Lenderking has been appointed special envoy to Yemen as a promising sign. But there are still doubts about what exactly the US will do next and how the government will implement the policy change, and lawmakers on both sides of the corridor are promising oversight.
“The details are important,” said Khanna, when it comes to Yemen’s policy change, noting that one of his concerns is that the Saudis will claim that future attacks will be defensive and non-offensive in an effort to find a breach. The term offensive attacks should refer to “any attack on Yemen,” he said.
How Congress can exercise oversight over Yemeni politics
Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who co-sponsored the Senate resolution on the Yemeni War Powers, said in an interview that he is “moved” by the policy announcement, but added that if Congress needs to verify executive power about the conflict in the future, lawmakers could always push again to approve a new version of the resolution.
“I am really looking forward to the Biden administration providing some of these additional details to Congress about exactly what kind of support they would consider to be of a defensive nature that could remain,” said Lee. “What do they mean by that? I am looking forward to learning more about this.”
“I intend to be very vigilant to ensure that we do not end up selling weapons to the Saudis who will be used through the back door in the Yemen conflict,” said Murphy, who was also a co-sponsor of Yemen’s Resolution of War Powers.
The senator said: “I hope that Congress does not need to intervene here, but it brought resolutions to the floor during the last Democratic government to object to arms sales. My hope is that there will be no reported ammunition sales to Congress for Saudi Arabia, because those they are clearly offensive weapons that are being used in Yemen. But if there are, I will be consistent. I will not apply a standard for the Trump administration and a different one for the Biden government. ”
Democratic Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, a co-sponsor of the Yemen Resolution in the House, told CNN that Congress can exercise a supervisory role to ensure swift action.
“It may be Democratic control with a Democratic president, but we have to make sure that we continue to make sure that there is a timetable and actions that follow what the president said so that we can end the suffering in Yemen,” Pocan said, pointing to the supervisory authorities of the House and Senate committees as a way to hold management accountable.
Khanna plans to monitor closely how the new US policy is implemented and will continue to push for America to help Yemenis recover from the damage done to them.
“We cannot go places, break them and just abandon them. We have a moral responsibility to help rebuild civilian life and society in Yemen, given the role we play in supporting the Saudi campaign. The Saudis have the greatest responsibility , by far, but we also have a moral responsibility, “he said.
How the debate over the Yemen conflict – and the powers of war – has changed
Even though the Yemeni War Powers resolution was vetoed by Trump, lawmakers say the fact that it passed Congress sent a powerful signal and, to some extent, paved the way for a new policy change on the conflict of the current administration.
“Absolutely, I think the Congressional action sent a strong message to anyone who heard it. Clearly, Donald Trump didn’t. Joe Biden did,” said Pocan.
Lee believes that passing the resolution helped to show that there is a growing bipartisan coalition on Capitol Hill that supports safeguarding the constitutional role of the legislative branch in authorizing war. The Utah Republican hopes that, in turn, is already causing a change in the way the United States approaches war.
“We have already entered many wars in many parts of the world and one of the things that facilitated this was the fact that we departed from Article I of the Constitution, which focuses on the need for Congress to declare war.” Lee said. “It is not a political party issue. We don’t care if it is a Republican or a Democrat in the White House, if they are taking us to war without authorization from Congress, that is a problem.”
Khanna is encouraged by what he sees as an emerging “left-right consensus” that is skeptical of foreign American military interventions. “In terms of recognizing that military interventionism has been detrimental to American strategic interests, I think it is something that has really grown in the United States Congress,” he said.
The congressman said that when he started pushing for a vote on the Yemeni War Powers resolution, “it was a tough fight” and that the assassination of Saudi and dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an event that generated bipartisan outrage, proved to be a ” turn point. ”
When Biden was elected president, Khanna was hopeful that he would take steps to obtain US support for the Saudi-led offensive. But he did not know when that could happen. Then he reached out to senior officials of the national security team to press the case and outlined a strategy with Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who had defended the Senate resolution.
“Senator Sanders and I talked, ‘do we need to reintroduce the Powers of War resolution?’ We were concerned with how quickly they would act and what decision they would take. And they knew that we were thinking about reintroducing that, “he said.
Finally, Khanna said this was not necessary, as Biden moved quickly to announce the policy change.
“It was a really significant moment to see this really happening,” he said.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, Ted Barrett, Jeremy Herb, Nima Elbagir contributed to this report.