WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Thursday released the following statement after the U.S. Senate failed to override President Trump’s veto of a resolution offered by Murphy, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) to end U.S. hostilities in the Saudi-led war in Yemen pursuant to the War Powers Act. Last month, the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives passed the resolutions with bipartisan support, sending the resolution to the president’s desk for the first time since the War Powers Act became law in 1973. Earlier today, Murphy spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate to urge his colleagues to vote for the resolution to override the president’s veto.

“President Trump had a chance to listen to the overwhelming number of Americans calling for the United States to get out of the Saudi-led civil war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen and hold the Saudi government accountable. We did not have the votes to override his veto, but that won’t stop me from continuing to work with my colleagues, like I have for the last four years, to bring an end to our involvement in this humanitarian disaster,” said Murphy.

Since the beginning of this conflict in 2015, Murphy has been a vocal critic of the United States’ support for the Saudi-led civil war in Yemen, and has called on his colleagues to pass legislation to end U.S. military involvement. The conflict has led to devastating humanitarian consequences and a security vacuum that has empowered terrorist groups, like ISIS and al Qaeda, to grow stronger in the region. Murphy has repeatedly expressed concern that U.S. participation in Saudi Arabia’s military actions against Houthi rebels in Yemen threatens our own national security interests. As a result of U.S. involvement assisting Saudi Arabia, we are potentially radicalizing young Yemenis against America and assisting in the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Yemeni citizens.

Last year, Murphy renewed his call to cease support for the Saudi-led campaign following a United Nations report that found continued human rights violations. After the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October, Murphy reiterated his call for the suspension of military support for the Saudi-led campaign. He echoed his call in an op-ed in the Washington Post. Murphy, Sanders and Lee reintroduced their resolution in January.

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