US House votes to limit Iran war for first time since ceasefire breakdown - Al Jazeera. US House votes to limit Iran war for first time since ceasefire breakdown | US-Israel war on Iran News | Al Jazeera Skip linksSkip to Content Live Sign up Navigation menuNews Show more news sectionsAfrica.
The US House of Representatives for the second time passed a war powers resolution directing Donald Trump to withdraw the US military from the conflict with Iran, amid renewed fighting that has driven oil prices to their highest levels in weeks and claimed four American lives.
Details
Four Republicans in the United States House of Representatives have again joined Democrats in voting to constrain President Donald Trump’s power to wage war against Iran.
Still, House Democrats said the latest resolution sends an important message that lawmakers oppose Trump’s approach to the war, which has re-escalated after a ceasefire broke down in early July.
Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesHouse of RepresentativesUS House passes war powers resolution directing Trump to end Iran conflictResolution, which follows similar one in June, is largely symbolic, as Democrats have few levers to force compliance.
In a statement on Thursday, David Janovsky, acting director of The Constitution Project at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), said the House vote “reaffirmed what people across the country have been saying all along: We want no part in an illegal war”.
The war powers resolution passed last month was later approved by the Senate, in a significant bipartisan rebuke of the president’s decision to join Israel in attacking Iran in February and sparking a regional conflict that opinion polls have consistently shown is unpopular with the US public.
The House measure’s passage is nonetheless largely symbolic, as the Trump administration has argued war powers resolutions are unconstitutional, and Democrats’ minority status in the House and Senate leaves them with few options to force compliance.
Under the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war, something it has not done since World War II, although presidents can commit forces in instances of pressing self-defence.
While the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28, the Trump administration claimed that hostilities had “terminated” following a temporary pause in fighting reached in April.
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list 3 of 3US attacks Iran for 12th night as the House approves defence spending.
is reasserting our authority over war,” Representative Pramila Jayapal said from the House floor on Wednesday, according to the latest reporting on the story.
Available information indicates that Trump has argued that the culmination of Iran’s actions since 1979 represented such an imminent threat, a claim many constitutional law experts have rejected.
He also noted that the House on Tuesday approved a sprawling $1.15 trillion defence bill that includes tens of billions more in funding for the war, in a development tied to the same story.
Separately, The war powers resolution passed with bipartisan support in the House and the Senate.
Both the US and Iran have traded 12 days of consecutive attacks, with some analysts warning an even greater US escalation may be on the horizon.
