US House votes to limit Trump's ability to wage war against Iran

WASHINGTON • The US House of Representatives has passed legislation to limit President Donald Trump's ability to wage war against Iran, amid continuing concern about a broader conflict after a January strike killed an Iranian commander.

The House on Wednesday voted 227 to 186 in favour of the war powers resolution, the latest effort by Congress to wrest back from the President its constitutionally guaranteed authority to declare war. Almost every Democrat voted in favour of the resolution.

Just six of Mr Trump's fellow Republicans supported it.

The measure - authored by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine - would require Mr Trump to remove US troops engaged in hostilities against Iran unless Congress declares war or passes a specific authorisation for the use of military force.

Representative Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urging a "yes" vote, said: "It's our responsibility to do something because we know the tensions could flare up again at a moment's notice."

Mr Trump has been engaged in a maximum-pressure campaign of renewed sanctions and near-constant rhetorical conflict against Iran, after pulling the US out of the international nuclear deal reached during Democratic president Barack Obama's term in office.

The Senate passed the war powers resolution last month and House approval now sends it to the White House, where Mr Trump has promised a veto.

Although eight of Mr Trump's fellow Republicans in the Senate - who rarely break ranks with the President over his policies - joined Democrats to support the measure, the resolution was not expected to muster the two-thirds majorities in both Chambers to override a veto.

Representative Michael McCaul, the Foreign Affairs Committee's top Republican, argued that voting on the resolution was irresponsible and that Congress would be better off addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

He said the measure ignored the "remarkable restraint" Mr Trump had shown in dealings with Iran.

"This will be the fifth time that this Congress... (is) considering a war powers resolution directing the President to withdraw US forces from wars we are not actually fighting," Mr McCaul said.

The Bill's backers noted that they were gaining more support for efforts to take back Congress' authority to declare war.

The Constitution gives that power to Congress, not the president, but presidents from both parties in recent decades have expanded the White House's authority to pursue military action without legislators' input.

"Our founding fathers did not want dictators running America," said Representative Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House.

Many members of Congress, including some Republicans, have pushed the administration for more information about the killing in January of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Mr Trump did not inform Congress about the drone strike until after it had taken place and then, many lawmakers said, his administration held back too much information about the reason for the strike and its legal justification.

Fears of a wider conflict also could be fuelled by the killing of two American and two British personnel on Wednesday, when small rockets hit Iraq's Taji military camp north of Baghdad.

There was no immediate word on Iraqi casualties.

US officials said it was too early to assign blame, but any indication that Iran-backed militias were responsible could ignite a new round of military escalation.

Fearing an even bloodier flare-up this time, Iraqi officials and the United Nations were quick to condemn the deaths yesterday.

Iraqi President Barham Saleh and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbussi condemned a "terrorist attack" which targeted "Iraq and its security". The UN mission in Iraq called for "maximum restraint on all sides".

About 5,200 US forces are stationed in Iraq as part of an international coalition formed in 2014 to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group.

ISIS captured vast swathes of territory after the earlier departure of US forces, which had toppled dictator Saddam Hussein in a 2003 invasion that turned disastrous.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE