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Yemenis are attending the funerals of victims of an air strike by the Saudis in Saada (Yemen) in August. Senator Todd Young, an Indiana Republican and freshman, has become the Trump administration's main irritant about his policy in Yemen: he has constantly challenged the military role of the United States in a campaign that killed or injured at least 17,000 civilians, including hundreds of children. , according to the United Nations.(Photo: AP)
WASHINGTON – Senator Todd Young is a former Navy Conservative and well-known for his opposition to President Donald Trump or the Republican Party line. Except on a very controversial issue: the terrible civil war in Yemen.
Or more specifically, the support of the United States for a deadly bombing campaign in the Arab nation that created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.
Republican Senator and Indiana freshman, Young has become the main irritant of Yemen's politics within the Trump administration. He has constantly challenged the military role of the United States in a campaign that killed or injured at least 17,000 civilians, including hundreds of children. The United Nations.
What caught Young's attention was not just the number of deaths attributable to wandering military strikes. It's the famine that really alarmed him – a man-made disaster that has put more than 8 million Yemenis on the verge of starvation.
"It shocked my sensitivity – and I know it hurts the sensitivity of all Americans – that nowadays, some countries use food as a weapon of war," Young said in the United States today.
"And heIn addition, I am offended by the fact that the United States has partnered with these countries, "he said.
Saudi Arabia is the United States' largest partner in Yemen. The Saudi regime and the United Arab Emirates launched a military campaign in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthi rebels seized one of the largest cities in Yemen and replaced the then president of Yemen. Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. The Houthis are backed by Iran, Saudi Arabia's main enemy in the region.
The United States has provided intelligence and weapons to the Saudi-led coalition, alongside a key Middle East ally in a proxy war that could determine the influence of Iran in the region. Trump administration officials resisted calls to reevaluate its role in August, after a roaming coalition bomb hit a school bus and killed dozens of children during school hours. an incident that provoked outrage from human rights groups.
Senator Todd Young (R-IN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, interviews witnesses at a Libya commission hearing in the Senate Office Building Dirksen at Capitol Hill on April 25 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)
Humanitarian groups have long criticized Saudi Arabia's behavior during the war, saying the regime had turned a blind eye to civilian casualties and other human suffering – including what Young called a "murderer". "The blockade of famine" that the Saudis erected last year to stop the flow of humanitarian aid.
The war in Yemen has attracted renewed attention following the Turkish authorities' allegations against Saudi Arabia for its role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist critical of the regime. If Khashoggi's death has something positive, Young said, it highlights "the impulsiveness of many decisions made by current Saudi leaders."
It remains to be seen whether it will be enough to trigger a change in US policy in Yemen. A confrontation between members of Congress could come after mid-term elections next week, when some lawmakers plan to try to remove any funding from the US military role in Yemen.
Young did not rule out such a dramatic step, and it could constitute a pivotal vote in a very divided Senate. "I consider all the options," he told USA TODAY.
Yemenis living in an isolated pocket of the north of the country have been forced to eat boiled leaves from a local vine to avoid starvation, no help being available for the families who need it most. (September 14)
AP
Young is not a bleeding heart peacenik, nor is he an isolationist with a libertarian tendency. He is a methodical and neat methodological hawk who trained as a rifle platoon commander in the navy after graduating from the US Naval Academy. He sought a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee after winning his race in the Senate in 2016; Previously, he had served in the House in the Armed Forces and Tax Filing Groups.
Ask him why he is so interested in Yemen and you will get more PowerPoint presentations than passionate soliloquies.
"It's a national security issue," notes Young, explaining that the militant Islamist group known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has its seat in Yemen. "And hungry people – denying them basic humanitarian aid – lead to radicalization. We do not want to create more terrorists. "
Democratic Senators and humanitarian aid groups said Young had turned out to be a surprising and effective ally in their efforts to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Yemen.
"He is in a unique position to convince this administration to do things that I can not," said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Liberal Democrat who led a crusade against the US support for the Saudi-led war. . "He very wisely used his influence as an influential member of the (Republican) conference to get the administration and the Gulf states to change their disposition."
More: US lawmakers demand answers after dozens of children are killed in the air strike in Yemen
More: Yemen is facing the "greatest famine in the world for decades" if the blockade is not lifted, says UN chief of aid
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Take, for example, the Saudi government's refusal last summer to allow four US-funded cranes to be delivered to a key Yemen port where they were supposed to be used to help unload food and feedstocks. drugs they desperately needed.
Young denounced the Saudi blockade by pressuring the Saudis and the Trump administration to put pressure on him. In July 2017, he convened a hearing in the Senate to help shed light on the role of the Saudis, first in the bombing of existing cranes, as well as in a warehouse filled with food, then in the blockage of ships carrying four new cranes, which it cost American taxpayers. $ 3.8 million.
"I want to make sure that the Saudis get all the public credit – or shame – that they deserve" for preventing the cranes, he said at the July hearing.
Five months later, faced with rising international outrage, the Saudis gave in and agreed to let the cranes pass. It was not a panacea, but it saved tens of thousands of lives, Young said.
If the Democrats and a human rights group encourage Young's attention to Yemen, the Trump government probably is not.
Young blocked the confirmation of a key State Department candidate until the administration gave him answers about the Saudis' compliance with international law. He handed a missive to Trump's first secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, calling for a "full diplomatic effort" to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and several other countries. When this did not work, he joined Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire in passing a law requiring the State Department to certify that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were striving to reduce the number of civilian casualties without hindering the delivery of food and medicine.
A State Department spokesperson did not answer questions about Young's role, but presented a general statement reiterating the administration's efforts to reach a political settlement to end the war.
"They will not tell it on the record, but you talk to members of the administration, and they say the biggest force that has steered the conflict in a positive direction has been Congressional pressure," he said. Scott Paul, one of the leading advocates of Oxfam America. . "And Senator Young has been at the heart of this."
Paul said that Young was effective in part because he did not have to face his clashes.
"It's private, it's calm, it requires diligence and sustained attention," he said of Young's legislative work on the issue.
At the same time, Paul and others complain that Young and other lawmakers have not been able to impose a true calculation of the war in Yemen. This could change with the assassination of Khashoggi, which encouraged Mr Murphy and other Democrats to step up their pressure.
Murphy has promised to try to block any arms sales to the Saudis in the United States, and lawmakers in the House are considering forcing a vote that would end the involvement of the military. in the conflict in Yemen.
For now, Young is working to get Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to answer key questions about the Saudi's level of responsibility for the recent increase in the number of civilian casualties. He and Shaheen could use this data to prevent the administration from refueling Saudi planes as part of the bombing campaign.
Young refused to say he was making fun of Pompeo or other White House officials and insisted that he was giving the president a "leverage", not pushing him back. administration to be more responsible. But, he added, he will use all the tools at his disposal to impose a more humanitarian policy.
"I feel emboldened to give this administration additional leverage … and help end the worst humanitarian crisis since the 1940s," said Young.
More: Turkey declares Jamal Khashoggi "savagely murdered" by Saudi Saudi group
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More: Who was Jamal Khashoggi? Saudi confidant and Saudi journalist deemed dissident reluctantly
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