In the letter, which fulfills an obligation of the president listed in the Resolution of the Powers of War, Biden described the details of the attack – the first known action by the US military under his administration – and said the action was “according to the United States” inherent right of self-defense, as reflected in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. “
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that the Defense Department informed Congressional leadership before the attack. “The administration is reporting to Hill at the member and employee level today. There will be a full secret meeting early next week at the latest,” said Psaki as he traveled with the president to Texas.
“Under my direction, on February 25, 2021, United States forces conducted a targeted military attack on the infrastructure in eastern Syria used by Iranian-backed non-state militia groups,” wrote Biden in Saturday’s letter to the mayor. Nancy Pelosi and the senator. Patrick Leahy, the Senate pro tempore president.
“These non-state militia groups have been involved in recent attacks against the United States and Coalition officials in Iraq, including the February 15, 2021 attack in Erbil, Iraq, which injured a member of the United States service, injured four contractors of the United States, including one critically, and killed a Filipino contractor. “
Biden wrote that the United States “is always ready to take necessary and proportionate measures in self-defense, even when, as is the case here, the government of the state where the threat is located does not want or is unable to prevent the use of its territory. by non-state militia groups responsible for such attacks. “
“This makes President Biden the seventh consecutive US president to order strikes in the Middle East,” said California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna. “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorize a military attack other than in self-defense against an imminent threat without Congressional authorization.”
For years, as the United States attacked locations in Syria and elsewhere, some members of Congress pushed to repeal a widely interpreted 2001 AUMF and pass a more narrowly defined resolution of war powers.
Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said on Friday that Congress “must be fully informed of the matter quickly”, noting that “an offensive military action without Congressional approval is not constitutional, without extraordinary circumstances”.
A spokesman for the National Security Council said the government had undergone a “rigorous process to include a legal review of the attacks carried out” and said that “the attacks were necessary to address the threat and proportional to previous attacks”.