Democratic Senator Chris Murphy confirmed that Congress should hold the new U.S. administration accountable to the standards followed by previous administrations. Murphy emphasized that Congress must demand legal justifications for military action, particularly in areas such as Syria, noting that Congress has not explicitly authorized any U.S. military action in Syria.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine also stated that military action without Congressional approval is unconstitutional in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, referring to recent U.S. airstrikes in Syria. Senator Kaine pointed out that the strikes were carried out without informing Congress, stressing that the American people have the right to know the justifications for them.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that the airstrike in northern Syria was carried out based on intelligence information developed in cooperation with the Kurds and Iraqis. The Pentagon revealed that the strike targeted Shiite militias believed to be involved in attacks on Americans and our partners in Iraq. The Pentagon added that it does not want to escalate the security situation in the region but has a commitment to protect the American people and its interests.
On the other hand, Syria condemned the U.S. aggression in areas of Deir ez-Zor near the Syrian-Iraqi border, considering it a message of American disregard for the role of international legitimacy in resolving the crisis in Syria, especially with the presence of the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, in Damascus.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in the Syrian Arab Republic, confirming that the U.S. military aircraft carried out a cowardly and unjustified attack by bombing certain areas in Deir ez-Zor province near the Syrian-Iraqi border on the evening of February 25, 2021. The Syrian Foreign Ministry considered the attack a blatant violation of international law and the United Nations Charter, representing an American message of contempt for international legitimacy.
The Ministry clarified that this blatant aggression is a new link in a series of repeated assaults by Israeli occupation forces, the so-called "international coalition," Turkish occupation, and crimes by armed terrorist organizations against the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic. It cited baseless pretexts or shameful justifications touted by U.S. officials from their platforms in Washington, forgetting their previous terrorist assaults that led to the deaths of hundreds of innocent Syrians, as acknowledged by the U.S. military leadership and other countries.
The statement stressed that these aggressions would only lead to chaos, the destruction of Syrian infrastructure, and increased tension and explosions in the region and the world, which directly serves the interests of armed terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Al-Nusra Front, which the American occupier seeks to support to justify its occupation of parts of Syrian territory in violation of international law, the UN Charter, human rights treaties, and all UN Security Council resolutions related to Syria that condemn terrorism and respect Syria's sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and national unity.
