The U.S. Senate plans a vote on Yemen this week, and not everyone in Washington is happy about it.

The State Department reiterated its frustration Sunday with Senate moves to cut U.S. support for the Saudi-led offensive in Yemen, where more than three years of civil war and external intervention have created what the United Nations says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Speaking at the UAE security forum in Abu Dhabi, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Gulf Affairs Timothy Lenderking expressed his concern over the Senate vote, which is due this week. The vote represents an unprecedented effort to invoke Congress's war powers to end U.S. activity that was started under the Obama administration without the authorization of Congress.

"Obviously there are pressures in our system … to either withdraw from the conflict or discontinue our support of the coalition, which we are strongly opposed to on the administration side," Lenderking said. "We do believe that the support for the coalition is necessary. It sends a wrong message if we discontinue our support."
The message Lenderking and his White House counterparts fear is one they say would empower Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional arch-rival and the backer of Yemen's Houthi rebels, who took over the country's capital of Sanaa in late 2014. Weakening Iran, which the administration accuses of malign and destabilizing activity across the Middle East from Syria and Yemen to Lebanon and Iraq, is a pillar of U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign policy.

The bipartisan resolution, sponsored by Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), calls for ending U.S. refueling of Saudi fighter jets and withdrawing U.S. military presence from the area, among other demands. Support for ending involvement in Yemen, which has gained ground in recent months, is at an all-time high amid anger over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which lawmakers and U.S. intelligence believe was directed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
AFB.