Rand Paul Tells Pompeo: You Have No Permission for War with Iran

By Staff, Agencies

US Senator Rand Paul on Wednesday warned the Trump administration not to go to war with Iran, at least not without getting permission from Congress.

Paul spoke directly to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He asked Pompeo if the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which allowed US troops to fight entities responsible for the 9/11 attacks and associated forces, included Iran.

Pompeo declined to directly answer the question, saying he’d defer to lawyers, but claimed that there is “no doubt there’s a connection” between the Iranian government and al-Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the 2001 attacks.

“You do not have the permission of Congress to go to war with Iran,” Paul responded, while chiding Pompeo for trying to deflect the question. “Only Congress can declare war.”

Pompeo was testifying before the Republican-controlled committee, a session that came the same week President Donald Trump blacklisted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The hearing was supposed to focus on the Trump administration’s proposal to slash the State Department budget by about a fourth. But lawmakers from both parties have dismissed the Trump administration’s budget proposal, saying it was a non-starter the way past such Trump plans have been.

Instead they zoomed in on other subjects, from the administration’s strategy in Afghanistan to its struggles to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.