Eli Lake, Columnist

The Saudis Have Only Themselves to Blame

If they didn’t want the Senate to withdraw U.S. support for their war in Yemen, they could have done something to stop it.

December 13, 2018 at 11:10 PM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

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For the past month, President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet have warned members of Congress not to rock the boat too much about Saudi Arabia’s murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

On Thursday the Senate disregarded those warnings and passed two important pieces of legislation. The first was a resolution — with no opposition — that places responsibility for Khashoggi’s death squarely on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The second bill, which passed by a vote of 56 to 41, would cut off all U.S. assistance to the Saudi war in Yemen.