PAUL KAWIKA MARTIN: It is significant that the U.S. Senate, Congress, is saying to the administration that there needs to be a change in this policy and we need to be putting pressure on our allies, Saudi Arabia and other parts of the party, to come to the table and figure out a political solution to stop the humanitarian disaster.
So it is very significant at the same time that this was being voted on, the U.N. was leading discussions with some of the internal parties involved – the Yemen government and the Houthi rebels, which are the main parties that are clashing within Yemen. And they ended up actually reaching some agreements, which is significant – definitely a big political win and significant to putting pressure on these parties to come to a resolution. And it’s a good constitutional win. Peace Action worked on passing the war powers resolution that people will remember came up after the Vietnam War, where that was never a declared war and Congress wanted to make sure that it had some sort of influence on what the Constitution says is the right of Congress to declare war. So the War Powers Act was passed and it was actually passed over the veto of Nixon at the time and it has been invoked many times. This is the first time actually, that it went all the way through to have a vote on the Senate side. And so that is significant to see that happen. And to see that the political pressure that it has been putting on the parties.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to get a vote on the House side. The House GOP, Republican leadership has constantly been using arcane parliamentarian moves to block any votes in the House. So we won’t see a vote in the House, at least this session. But we expect next year to see something different.
BETWEEN THE LINES: So, in January when the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives, if there is a vote on the war powers resolution to end U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen, does there have to be a second vote in the Senate? And what are the prospects that this will come to anything given that President Trump would have to sign such a bill to go into the force of law?
PAUL KAWIKA MARTIN: It’s difficult to see how the war powers resolution will actually become law because, as you mentioned, we do need to get enough votes to override Trump’s veto. Or, you know, would Trump veto? That’s an assumption. But I would assume yes, it would be his first veto. So it’s like it would be a big news item. So, I think you’re right, it’s going to be a difficult vote to get. But as we’ve seen, these votes and the attention have their own political power, even if they don’t become law. So we definitely are putting pressure on Democratic leadership to bring this vote up as soon as possible in the new Congress. We’re pretty sure we have now the votes in the House of Representatives next year. Now the Senate will probably lose a few votes from what we just had but still should have enough enough to pass.
And then let’s have the president veto it, if that’s what he wants to do. The news stories that will come out of that will also continue to put pressure on the administration and the warring parties to make a solution. And then Congress can take up some of the others’ powers over the year by perhaps putting language in appropriations bills, restrictive language, restricting funding. There’s other things that can happen, you know, over that process. But that process only will take effect the following year. And here we have, we have a situation in which a child is dying almost every 10 minutes in Yemen. So we need quicker action. So we’re certainly hoping to see these happen early next year. The UN process, we see the meetings that happened last week, are supposed to continue in early January. So, continued political pressure is needed on the parties to come up with a political solution.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Can you provide our listeners with an update on what’s going on with the peace negotiations the United Nations brokered in Sweden? As I understand it, they succeeded in having a ceasefire agreement for the vital port of Hodeidah where all the food and emergency medical supplies would have to go through in order to help all those victims of the war, people who are suffering from famine and the cholera epidemic.
PAUL KAWIKA MARTIN: The ceasefire was agreed to not only in the port of Hodeidah, but a couple of other ports. But as you mentioned, Hodeidah is the pipeline of anywhere between 70 to 90 percent of the needs of the country. So it’s very important to have a ceasefire there to allow that port to have the influx of the medical and humanitarian aid that’s needed to come through to help all the Yemenis that are in dire need of medicines and foods. The UN still needs to put together some monitoring to keep the ceasefire going. So I do think it’s a positive sign. Talks are always better than no talks. A ceasefire, even if they get broken, are better than no ceasefires. You know, this is where you have to put your hope hat on and hope that these things hold on and these negotiations continue.
