Dec 30, 2019

Mounting tensions between US forces and Tehran-backed proxies in Iraq could lead to broader American military action against Iran. If that happens, President Donald Trump already has at his disposal a legal opinion the State Department submitted to Congress last June.

“We do not make a distinction between the Iranian regime and any of its proxies that they organize, train and equip,” a senior State Department official told reporters today. “We are not giving Iran the fiction of deniability any longer.”

The United States blamed the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah for deadly attacks on American forces in Iraq and struck the militia in Iraq and Syria Dec. 29. Abdul Mahdi al-Muhandis, a former Kataib Hezbollah commander and current head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, has vowed “a very tough response” on US forces in Iraq.

Why it matters: Democrats in Congress are worried the Trump administration could use two prior military authorizations — one from 2001 and the other from 2002 — to use military force against Iran as tensions mount in Iraq.

The State Department submitted a legal opinion to Congress last June stating it did not view either Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) as greenlighting strikes against Iran “except as may be necessary to defend US or partner forces engaged in counterterrorism operations or operations to establish a stable, democratic Iraq.”