US Senate Republicans block latest bid to rein in Trump’s Iran war powers
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Burnt-out vehicles at the site of a car repair shop and dealership in Tehran, damaged by a strike on March 28.
PHOTO: REUTERS
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
- US Senate supports President Trump's military campaign against Iran, blocking a Democratic resolution to halt the war without Congressional authorisation.
- The Senate voted 52-47 against the resolution, highlighting Republican support for Trump's policy six weeks after US-Israel airstrikes.
- Democrats pledge to continue introducing war powers resolutions until the conflict concludes or Congress authorises continued fighting.
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WASHINGTON - A majority of the US Senate backed President Donald Trump’s military campaign against Iran on April 15, voting to block a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the war until hostilities are authorised by Congress.
The Senate voted 52-47 not to advance the war powers resolution, underscoring his party’s continuing support for the Republican president’s war policy more than six weeks after the US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran on Feb 28.
Mr Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network conducted on April 14 and aired on April 15 that the war was close to over.
Also on April 15, the army chief of mediator Pakistan arrived in Tehran to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict, after weekend peace negotiations ended without an agreement.
It was the fourth time Democrats have forced votes on war powers measures since the war began.
All of them have failed in the face of opposition from every Republican except Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The libertarian-leaning Mr Paul, who often advocates against excessive military spending and for a strict interpretation of the Constitution, was the only Republican vote in favour of the resolution in the latest vote.
The only Democratic no vote came from Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman.
Republican Senator Jim Justice of West Virginia did not vote.
Although the US Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war, presidents from both parties have long held the restriction does not apply for short-term operations or if the country is under immediate threat.
‘Nobody is coming to help you, Iran’
The White House, and almost all of Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, say Mr Trump’s actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the US by ordering limited military operations.
Opinion polls show the war is broadly unpopular, although views differ along partisan lines.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on March 31 found that 60 per cent of Americans opposed US military strikes on Iran, with 74 per cent of Republicans supporting the action, compared with 7 per cent of Democrats.
Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, accused backers of the war powers resolution of supporting Iran in a speech before the vote.
“Nobody is coming to help you, Iran, except for the 47 people over here,” he said, referring to senators who back the resolution.
Democrats said they wanted Congress to retake its constitutionally mandated power to declare war, and pull the country back from what they warned could become a long conflict.
“I urge my colleagues ... to choose the path of peace before President Trump’s war becomes irreversible,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a speech urging support for the vote.
Democratic Party leaders have vowed to keep bringing war powers resolutions until the conflict ends or Congress authorises continued fighting.
The House of Representatives is expected to consider a similar measure later this week. REUTERS
