Letter warns against “a cycle of tit-for-tat military actions that would put our allies, partners, and civilians in the region at grave risk”  

 

Washington (January 9, 2020) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Representative Ro Khanna (CA-17) are leading their colleagues in a call on President Donald Trump to prevent war with Iran. In a bicameral letter sent today, the 23 lawmakers express serious concerns about escalating conflict with Iran and outline five steps to avert a war that could lead to untold loss of life and cost trillions of dollars. They include requesting authorization from Congress for any military action against Iran; providing Americans and Congress the supporting intelligence of imminent threat that justified General Qassem Soleimani’s killing without Congressional approval; engaging in risk-reduction talks with the Iranians; affirming that the Administration’s goal is not regime change and the Iranian people alone must determine their own future; and ceasing threats of war crimes by attacking Iranian cultural sites.

 

“Your unilateral decision to kill Qassem Soleimani appears to have neither advanced U.S. and international security nor lessened the threats the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps poses to the region and beyond,” write the lawmakers in their letter to President Trump. “The apparent lack of rigorous planning for this important decision or a plan for de-escalation, as well as your defiance of the Congress — and its constitutionally defined role to declare war — heightens the security risk to all Americans.”

 

“Mr. President, there is still time to avoid a catastrophic war with Iran,” write the lawmakers. “But that requires a sharp departure from your Administration’s lack of rigorous planning that have helped lead us to this perilous moment.”

 

A copy of the letter can be found HERE. 

 

Joining Senator Markey and Representative Khanna on the letter are Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Representatives James P. McGovern (MA-03), Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Don Beyer (VA-08), Raúl Grijalva (AZ-03), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Jared Huffman (CA-02), Deb Haaland (NM-01), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Peter Welch (VT), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Peter DeFazio (OR-04), Lloyd Doggett (TX-35), and Jan Schakowsky (IL-09).

 

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