In a political development that reflects the escalating division within Washington over the war with Iran, the US Senate voted in favor of advancing a draft resolution aimed at preventing US President Donald Trump from carrying out additional military strikes against Tehran, in a move that was considered a rare breakthrough for the Democrats in confronting the White House after about 3 months of a war that has become described within the United States as “unpopular.”
According to a report by journalist Theodoric Meyer in the Washington Post, four Republican members joined the Democrats in voting to remove the “war powers” project from the relevant committee, namely Rand Paul, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Bill Cassidy, with the only Democrat John Fetterman opposing.
The procedural vote was 50 to 47, in the first official step that may open the door to an attempt to force Trump to end the war, which, according to his critics, did not receive official authorization from the US Congress.
The report indicated that since the beginning of the war, Democrats have tried to pass 7 similar projects with the support of Republican Senator Rand Paul, but they all failed, before the positions of some Republicans began to change as the war continued and political and popular pressures increased.
The position of Republican Senator Bill Cassidy was a remarkable surprise, after he voted for the first time with the Democrats after losing the primaries within his party after Trump supported one of his rivals.
Cassidy said that the White House and the US Department of Defense “kept Congress in the dark” about the details of the war, adding: “In Louisiana, I heard from people, including Trump supporters, that they are concerned about this war.”
He continued: “Until the American administration provides clarifications, any authorization or extension of the war cannot be justified.”
For his part, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer strongly attacked Trump before the vote, after the US President announced that he was only an hour away from issuing orders to launch new strikes against Iran.
“This president is like a little kid playing with a loaded gun,” Schumer said, adding: “If there was ever a time to support a war powers bill and withdraw American forces from the confrontation with Iran, this is the time.”
The report explained that the vote also came after the Trump administration exceeded a legal deadline stipulated in the “War Powers Act” issued in 1973, which obligates any American president to withdraw American forces from any conflict not approved by Congress within 60 days.
Trump had exceeded the deadline on May 1, justifying this by saying that “hostilities have ended,” despite the United States continuing to impose a naval blockade on Iran.
On the other hand, some Republicans adopted Trump’s narrative, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, who said that “hostilities have ceased to exist for some time.”
But the Democrats rejected this proposal, considering that the current truce gives Congress an opportunity to restore its constitutional role in the war decision.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who is leading the movement against the war, said: “If we are truly in a ceasefire and looking for a diplomatic path rather than quickly returning to bombing, then this is precisely the time when Congress should discuss the causes of this war.”
According to a poll conducted by the New York Times in cooperation with Siena, 64% of registered voters believe that Trump made a mistake by deciding to go to war, compared to only 30% who believed that the decision was correct.
Despite the political breakthrough achieved by the Democrats, the report indicated that the draft resolution still faces major obstacles, as it needs two additional votes in the Senate, before moving to the House of Representatives, which last week rejected a similar draft by a narrow margin.
Trump is also expected to use his veto power against any decision of this kind, which means that Congress will need a two-thirds majority to override the presidential veto, something that no project related to war powers has previously succeeded in achieving.
The report concluded by noting that Senator Tim Kaine realizes the difficulty of ending the war in practice, but he believes that every additional vote sends a direct message to Trump about the decline in the popularity of the war within the American street, saying: “Trump is the most sensitive person on the planet about his popularity… and this is what matters to him in the end.”
