Confirming Christopher Henzel as the US Ambassador to Yemen will continue the US role in the starvation and deaths of millions of Yemenis
While the press has closely followed the Senate efforts to stop US support for the Saudi war in Yemen in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, a December 4 Senate Foreign Affairs Committee meeting introducing Donald Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Yemen slipped under the radar.
Christopher Henzel is presently the Charge d’Affairs, or acting Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. A career Foreign Service officer, he has been the acting Ambassador since the departure of the Obama administration’s appointee in January 2017. He is now Trump’s pick to become the highest US diplomat to the wartorn nation of Yemen, but his initial appearance before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee did not go very well. Watch video.
Senators Corker, Mendenez, Kaine, Markey and Young used the appearance as an opportunity to skewer the Trump administration’s participation in the Saudi war on Yemen and its handling of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Earlier in the day Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Corker and the heads of the Senate Armed Services, Appropripriations and Intelligence Committees received a briefing from CIA director Gina Haspel on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s (MBS) involvement in the Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment. In the committee hearing, Corker said “There is zero doubt in my mind that Prince Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing of Khashoggi. If Prince Mohammed were put on trial, a jury would unanimously find him guilty in about 30 minutes.” Corker said that the Trump administration’s assertion that there is no direct evidence of MBS’s involvement was “unacceptable.”'
Read more: Nominee for US Ambassador to Yemen is No Friend of the Yemeni People
