WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasted lawmakers Wednesday ahead of an all-Senate briefing on the war in Yemen and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

In a surprisingly antagonistic op-ed, published in the Wall Street Journal, Pompeo accused lawmakers of "caterwauling" about Saudi Arabia's human-rights record and ignoring the kingdom's pivotal role in sidelining Iran.

"The Trump administration’s effort to rebuild the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Arabia partnership isn’t popular in the salons of Washington, where politicians of both parties have long used the kingdom’s human-rights record to call for the alliance’s downgrading," Pompeo wrote.

"The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on," he said. "But degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies."

Pompeo's attack on lawmakers landed just hours before he was set deliver a classified briefing to senators on the war in Yemen, where the U.S. is supporting a Saudi-led coalition against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

Pompeo accused the Trump administration's critics in Congress of being soft on Iran – an assertion that's likely to spark a backlash among Democrats and Republicans alike who have pushed the administration to mete out stronger punishment against Saudi Arabia for its role in Khashoggi's murder.

“Is it any coincidence that the people using the Khashoggi murder as a cudgel against President Trump’s Saudi Arabia policy are the same people who supported Barack Obama’s rapprochement with Iran — a regime that has killed thousands worldwide, including hundreds of Americans, and brutalizes its own people?" Pompeo wrote.

"Where was this echo chamber, where were these avatars of human rights, when Mr. Obama gave the mullahs pallets of cash to carry out their work as the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism?"

Pompeo's preemptive criticism of lawmakers could make Wednesday's closed-door briefing all the more contentious.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had a “little chat” with Pompeo Wednesday morning about the op-ed. “It may have missed the mark,” Corker said, declining to elaborate.

Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel, seemed similarly displeased. He said Pompeo should have listened to the audio tape of Khashoggi’s murder, evidence the Turkish government shared with America officials to prove the Saudis’ complicity in the Washington Post columnist’s death. “That’s caterwauling,” Menendez quipped as he went into the closed-door briefing.

Corker said on Tuesday that unless the two Cabinet secretaries spell out a more forceful response to Khashoggi’s death, he may vote in favor of ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen – a step he has opposed in the past.

“There’s got to be a price to pay for what has happened,” he said. "This injustice has occurred,” the Tennessee Republican added, “and so far, the administration doesn’t appear to” be prepared to respond adequately.

Pompeo warned lawmakers against ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

"Abandoning Yemen would do immense damage to U.S. national security interests and those of our Middle Eastern allies and partners," the secretary of state planned to tell lawmakers, according to excerpts released by the State Department Wednesday morning.

Pompeo argued that efforts to end the conflict are "gaining steam." He noted that the Houthis and the Republic of Yemen's government have committed to attending talks in Sweden in December, led by UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths. But the Saudis have yet to agree to those negotiations.

Pompeo also argued that if the United States was not involved in Yemen, the conflict "would be a hell of a lot worse."

"... The Saudi-led coalition would not have the benefit of our advice and training on targeting, so more civilians would die," Pompeo says in his prepared remarks. "All we would achieve from an American drawdown is a stronger Iran and a reinvigorated ISIS and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Try defending that outcome back home."

Critics have blasted the argument that the U.S. role is mitigating the horrible toll on civilians.

"That sounds like the military industrial complex is putting out some spin," Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., told USA TODAY in a recent interview. "We have not heard that from any humanitarian group that we work with."

More: Senate to vote on U.S. military role in Yemen amid anger over Saudi-led war, Khashoggi murder

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasts lawmakers for ‘caterwauling’ over Khashoggi’s murder