Fresh off of the Yemen War vote, the Senate unanimously and without objection passed a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and expressing the Senate’s sense that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was responsible for that murder.
This was one of several resolutions intended to rebuke Saudi Arabia for the murder which was under consideration in Congress. Last week saw a number of negotiations trying to compromise on which would be passed and which wouldn’t.
These resolutions were done mostly because the White House had broadly refused to criticize the Saudis over the murder, and also refused to blame the prince, despite the CIA expressing “strong confidence” that the crown prince ordered the murder.
A number of senators had expressed preference in recent weeks that the White House make such a statement, but said that in absence of that, the Congress would have to act to make its own position known.