Congress Emboldens Iran in the Name of Peace in Yemen

Instead, condemn the Houthis for human-rights violations and demand they observe a cease-fire.

With tensions escalating in the Middle East, Congress is emboldening Iran by sending the wrong message about Yemen. Last week the Senate voted to halt military sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Earlier this year, President Trump was forced to veto a congressional resolution aimed at ending U.S. assistance to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Congress evidently can’t separate its response to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi from the threats posed by the Houthis, Iranians and terrorists in Yemen. This is no time to be sending mixed messages to Tehran.

I know Yemen. I worked there as an undercover Central Intelligence Agency officer in the aftermath of the deadly 2000 bombing by al Qaeda of the USS Cole in the port of Aden. Since 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthi government attacked Yemen’s internationally recognized government and seized the capital, Sana’a, the country has descended into a humanitarian crisis that is among the world’s worst. According to the United Nations, some 24 million people need humanitarian assistance and protection, mostly in Houthi-held territory. An estimated 7.4 million need treatment for malnutrition, including two million children under 5. The Houthis’ extensive use of land mines has killed and maimed civilians and left vulnerable communities cut off from their crops, clean water and humanitarian aid.

Iran has capitalized on the suffering. Tehran is turning Yemen into a proxy state and haven for terrorist groups. This is what the Saudi-led coalition is fighting to prevent.

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