US Senators Call on Biden to Demand Saudi End of Blockade Tactics on a Starving Yemen

By Staff, Agencies

A group of Democratic senators are calling on US President Joe Biden to take "immediate and decisive action" to end Saudi Arabia's "blockade tactics" in Yemen that have prevented food, medicine and other crucial supplies from reaching desperate and starving people there.

A Saudi failure to meet those demands should result in consequences, the senators wrote in a Wednesday letter to Biden that CNN has seen, "to include pending weapons sales, military cooperation, and the provision of maintenance for war planes and spare parts, as well as US-Saudi ties more broadly."

"Immediate and decisive action must be taken to end the ongoing blockade of fuel imports that is exacerbating the growing humanitarian crisis," sixteen Democratic senators wrote in a letter led by Sen.  Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. "The United States has diplomatic and economic leverage to compel Saudi Arabia to end its callous blockade of Yemen and we must use it before more lives are needlessly lost."

A CNN investigation in March found that Saudi warships were preventing oil tankers from docking at the key rebel controlled Hudaydah port, including 14 vessels that had gained approval from a United Nations clearance mechanism to berth.

The senators wrote that the block on the "importation of commercial fuel into northern Yemen needed by nearly two-thirds of the Yemeni population ... has negatively impacted food transporters and processors, hospitals, schools, and businesses."

But in their letter, the senators say the blockade tactics continue, pointing in part to a statement from the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres who "confirmed this crisis in February, noting, 'no commercial fuel imports were allowed through Hudaydah Port' exacerbating an already dire situation."

The lawmakers' push was welcomed by groups that have worked to alleviate the devastation in Yemen. "It's welcome news that this group of Senators is calling for an immediate end to the Saudi blockade on Yemen, that's helping drive the world's worst humanitarian crisis," said Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative manager for Middle East Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

"Unfortunately, international donors have fallen more than $2.5 billion short of what humanitarian partners in Yemen require this year," they wrote. "We urge you to support another donors’ conference that fills that funding shortfall, as doing so could mean the difference between life and death for millions of Yemenis."