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Meng Statement on Killing of Qasem Suleimani

January 3, 2020

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, issued the following statement after the U.S. drone strike that killed Major General Qasem Suleimani of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force.

"General Suleimani had the blood of Americans, Israelis, Syrians, Libyans, Yemenis and of course Iranians on his hands. His centrality to the violent mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran cannot be overstated.

But an action as consequential as the targeted strike on General Suleimani will undoubtedly have ripple effects that we cannot yet foresee. My prevailing concern is whether this decision was made with these precautions in mind. The safety of Americans – from the diplomatic corps to our servicemembers to civilians living and traveling abroad – are now at risk. If the Iraqi Government ceases to allow a U.S. presence, Iranian control of Iraq will grow. And, most importantly, we must be fully prepared for any possible retaliation – whether through missile attacks on our allies, attacks on our embassies, or a cyber-attack on our homeland.

I remain deeply concerned by the President's failure to seek partners in this complicated endeavor. Congress is not an obstacle to overcome – Congress has the constitutional authority to declare and to fund war. NATO is not a barrier to circumvent. NATO allies are our partners in our collective self-defense In fact, during the mark-up of this year's DOD funding bill, I helped insert and supported a provision to repeal the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and to call for no war with Iran. The House-passed National Defense Authorization Act also included the sunset of the 2002 AUMF. I voted against the final versions of these bills, which stripped all attempts to deal with these outdated AUMFs.

I expect to hear the answers to these questions immediately from our Administration."