US lawmakers see no Trump plan for Iran following strikes, polarised on attacks
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A woman holding a picture of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at Vali-Asr Square, in Tehran, on March 1.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - The United States has yet to spell out a “day-after” strategy for Iran following the joint US-Israeli attack that killed much of the country’s leadership, said lawmakers from both major political parties on March 1.
US President Donald Trump has called for a change in Iran’s government, which has entered a period of uncertainty following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Feb 28 attack.
Republicans expressed optimism about the attack, while Democrats were sceptical that it would lead to a favourable outcome, but lawmakers on both sides were uncertain about the immediate future. Mr Trump told the Daily Mail later on March 1 that the military operation could continue for four weeks.
What comes next?
Lawmakers appearing on Sunday morning talk shows on March 1 all opposed deploying US ground forces to Iran.
“There’s no simple answer for what’s going to come next,” Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS News’ Face The Nation.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, a staunch Trump ally and defence hawk, echoed the US President’s call for the Iranian people to decide who should lead their government.
“You know, this idea, ‘You break it, you own it’, I don't buy that one bit,” Mr Graham said on NBC’s Meet The Press programme.
“This is not Iraq. This is not Germany. This is not Japan. We’re going to free the people up from a terrorist regime.”
Mr Khamenei’s death set off a process under which a three-person council will run the country until a separate clerical body selects a new supreme leader.
Asked if the US had identified a leader of the Iranian opposition that Iran’s people could rally behind, Mr Cotton said: “The opposition is 90 million Iranians who have suffered under the brutal Islamic Republic Revolutionary regime for the last 47 years.”
Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said he could not see how regime change in Iran could happen with the current operation.
“There’s no example I know of in modern history where regime change has happened solely through air strikes,” Mr Coons said on CNN’s State Of The Union programme.
Before the air strikes on Feb 28, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had assessed that hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could replace Mr Khamenei if he were killed, said two sources briefed on the intelligence.
Mr Trump on March 1 said 48 leading figures in Iran’s government had been killed so far. Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, pointed to the earlier CIA assessment.
“So, we are not going to get a democracy. We are going to get an even worse Iranian leadership,” Mr Murphy told the CBS programme. “It’s no secret that this administration has no plan for the chaos that is unfolding right now in the Middle East.”
Illegal US ‘war of choice’
The US and Israeli attack, as well as Iranian retaliation, has sent shockwaves through multiple sectors, such as shipping, air travel and oil, amid warnings of rising energy costs and disruption to business in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway.
Three US service members were killed and another five were seriously wounded, in the first US casualties of the unfolding operations against Iran, the US military said on March 1.
Mr Trump justified the attack in part by pointing to the threat of an Iranian nuclear programme that he had until recently claimed was “obliterated” by US air strikes in June 2025.
While Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans largely fell in line behind the President, several Democratic lawmakers said the attack was illegal because under the Constitution, only Congress has the right to declare war.
Senator Mark Warner from Virginia, the Democratic vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who was among eight lawmakers briefed last week before the strikes, said the administration did not provide evidence of an imminent threat. Instead, Mr Warner said, Mr Trump started a “war of choice”.
“I saw no intelligence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of pre-emptive strike against the United States,” Mr Warner said on CNN’s State Of The Union.
Mr Warner and US Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, expressed concern that the attack could drag the United States into another long and messy conflict in the Middle East.
Mr Khanna, who is helping lead an attempt in the House of Representatives to block further military action without congressional approval, said it was unclear how Iran would be governed following Mr Khamenei’s death.
“Khamenei was a brutal dictator, but Americans are not safer today,” Mr Khanna said. “The questions are: Is the country going to descend in civil war? Are billions of our dollars going to be spent there? Are American troops going to be at risk?”
Lawmakers said they wanted to avoid a prolonged and costly conflict reminiscent of the Iraq War, which dragged on for years and claimed thousands of US lives.
Senator Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, said he hopes US involvement in Iran can be completed within a month.
“It all depends on... whoever the new leader is in Iran,” Mr Scott told Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures show. “We’re going to finish this, and if we don’t, we'll be doing this in five years, in 10 years.” REUTERS
