WASHINGTON (Middle East Eye) – Two prominent House Democrats have introduced legislation that would prohibit U.S. companies from providing maintenance services to the Saudi air force, the latest attempt by lawmakers to reduce Washington’s involvement in the devastating seven-year war in Yemen.
The bill, introduced by Congressmen Tom Malinowski and Jim McGovern - who serves as the co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission - would for two years prohibit the State Department from granting licenses to U.S. companies maintaining aircraft “belonging to military units that carried out offensive air strikes inside Yemen over the last year”.
If passed, the measure would only permit maintenance work for U.S.-made aircraft, including Saudi Arabia’s fleet of F-15 fighter jets, on the condition they are used exclusively “in a defensive capacity”.
It would also permit Biden the ability to waive the ban on maintenance contracts on a case-by-case basis, however, the difficulty in making the defensive distinction could well cease all U.S. maintenance to Saudi aircraft involved in Yemen.
The bill would also require the administration to provide Congress with quarterly updates on Saudi air strikes in Yemen, and would suspend current maintenance contract licenses.
“For over six years, the people of Yemen have suffered from ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including air strikes by Saudi Arabia. This is unconscionable and wrong,” McGovern said in a statement.
“The Biden administration must send a clear and unambiguous signal to Saudi Arabia: their actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the United States.
“The Saudi jets responsible for killing innocent Yemeni civilians should not be maintained with U.S. government support.”
Saudi Arabia launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 with the participation of the United Arab Emirates and other countries and extensive military support from the United States and the Europeans.
The war was launched to eliminate Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
The war, accompanied by a tight siege, has failed to reach its goals, but it has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemeni people and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases there.