US House passes resolution to end support for Saudi-led war in Yemen
Xinhua
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From left, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and House Rules Committee Chair James McGovern, D-Mass., speak to reporters after the House voted to end American involvement in the Yemen war, rebuffing the Trump administration's support for the Saudi-led military campaign, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, April 4, 2019, though President Trump is expected to veto it. It's the first time Congress has invoked the decades-old War Powers Resolution to try and stop a foreign conflict. (Photo: AP)

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Xinhua) -- US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Thursday asking for an end of US support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition's war in Yemen, a move that is likely to invite a veto from the White House.

The vote was 247 to 175, largely falling along party lines. It approves the resolution seeking to direct President Donald Trump to remove the US troops from Yemen within 30 days and to terminate US support for the coalition in the war.

The resolution was greenlighted in the Senate last month. It marked the first time that since the War Powers Act was passed in 1973 both chambers of Congress passed a resolution using that law.

The White House has formally threatened to veto the resolution, arguing it was "flawed." It could be the second veto of Trump's residency after he was forced to issue the first one on a resolution that would have blocked his national emergency declaration to build a border wall.

The split between the Trump administration and Congress on Saudi Arabia has become more obvious in the wake of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey's Istanbul in October 2018, and a number of top Saudi officials involved in the case were arrested.

The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa and Hodeidah.

The four-year civil war has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, displaced 3 million others, and pushed the country to the brink of famine.