Two prominent House Democrats have introduced legislation that would prohibit US companies from providing maintenance services to the Saudi air force, the latest attempt by lawmakers to reduce Washington’s involvement in the devastating seven-year war in Yemen.
The bill, introduced by Congressmen Tom Malinowski and Jim McGovern – who serves as the co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission – would for two years prohibit the State Department from granting licences to US companies maintaining aircraft “belonging to military units that carried out offensive air strikes inside Yemen over the last year”.
If passed, the measure would only permit maintenance work for US-made aircraft, including Saudi Arabia’s fleet of F-15 fighter jets, on the condition they are used exclusively “in a defensive capacity” to target the Houthis’ missile and drone capabilities.
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