US congresswoman Gabbard will run for president

WASHINGTON: Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran who met dictator Bashar al-Assad in Syria during that country’s devastating civil war, said late on Friday that she is launching a US presidential bid.

"I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week," Gabbard told CNN.

If elected, the 37-year-old lawmaker would be the youngest president in US history. She is the first Hindu member of Congress and its first Samoan American.

"There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision. There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I’m concerned about and that I want to help solve," she said, citing health care access and climate change among them.

Gabbard sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she is able to influence US foreign policy. "There is one main issue that is central to the rest, and that is the issue of war and peace," Gabbard added. "I look forward to being able to get into this and to talk about it in depth when we make our announcement."