Biden sends a letter to congressional leadership explaining justification for Syria strike

Biden sends a letter to congressional leadership explaining justification for Syria strike

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In the letter, which complies with the president’s obligation listed in the War Powers Resolution, Biden set out the details of the strike – the first military action by the US military under his government – States’ inherent right to self-defense as reflected in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. “

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the Department of Defense had briefed congressional leadership before the strike. “The administration informed the Hill today of member and staff members. There will be a full briefing next week,” Psaki said as he traveled to Texas with the president.

“Under my leadership, on February 25, 2021, U.S. forces launched a targeted military strike against infrastructure in eastern Syria used by Iran-backed non-state militia groups,” Biden said in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the pro tempore president of the Senate.

‘Those non-state militia groups were involved in recent attacks on the United States and coalition personnel in Iraq, including the February 15, 2021 attack in Erbil, Iraq, which wounded one U.S. member of the United States and injured four U.S. contractors, including one critical, and one Philippine contractor killed. ‘

Biden wrote that the US “is always ready to take essential and proportionate action in its own defense, including when the government of the state where the threat is located does not like or can not use its territory here” does not occur by non-state militia groups responsible for such attacks. ‘

His government said the strike was in response to rocket attacks by Iranian-backed military groups on U.S. forces in recent weeks, and was backed by Article II of the Constitution and the United Nations Charter.
But some Democrats have said Congress has not adopted a mandate for the use of military force specifically in Syria, and previous resolutions passed in 2001 and 2002 were designed to attack those responsible for the attacks on September 11, 2001 and to wage war with Iraq. Congress has not declared war since 1942.

“This makes President Biden the seventh consecutive U.S. president to order strikes in the Middle East,” the Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, California, said. “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorize a military strike that is not in self-defense against an impending threat without the authority of Congress.”

While the US struck years ago in Syria and elsewhere, some members of Congress insisted on repealing a broadly interpreted AUMF of 2001 and adopting a more closely defined resolution of military forces.

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said Friday that Congress “needs to be informed quickly about this matter” and pointed out that “offensive military action without congressional approval is not constitutionally absent extraordinary circumstances.”

A spokesman for the National Security Council said the administration had undergone a “rigorous process to legally review the strikes carried out”, and said: “the strikes are necessary to address the threat and in relation to the previous attacks. “

CNN’s Alex Rogers and Kelly Mena contributed to this report.

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