US House votes to rein in Donald Trump's war powers against Iran

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives voted on Thursday to stop President Donald Trump from further military action against Iran as the Middle East remained tense after the US killing of a top Iranian commander and Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes.

The resolution passed 224-194 along party lines in the Democratic-controlled House with nearly all Republicans opposed. The measure orders termination of Trump’s war powers to use US armed forces against Iran without Congress’ consent.

The measure now goes to the Senate, which is controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, and faces an uphill battle.

The vote came just hours after Trump said that Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was killed by a US drone strike in Iraq last week last because he had planned to blow up a US embassy.

“We caught a total monster and we took him out and that should have happened a long time ago. We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Read more: US, Iran draw back from brink but new threats show crisis not over

His remarks seemed to shed more light on what so far have been largely vague descriptions of the intelligence that drove Trump’s conclusion that killing Soleimani and disrupting his plots would be better than any fallout Washington may face.

A White House spokesman called the House-passed war powers measure “ridiculous” and politically motivated. The measure “could undermine the ability of the United States to protect American citizens whom Iran continues to seek to harm,” an administration policy statement said.

But if passed by the Senate, the measure does not need Trump’s signature to go into effect.

NEXT MOVE?

Earlier on Thursday, Iran spurned Trump’s call for a new nuclear pact, and its commanders threatened more attacks, fueling worries that an apparent pause in US-Iran conflict could be short-lived.

But each side’s next move was uncertain. Iranian generals resumed their habitual barrage of warnings to Washington, and Trump said new sanctions had been imposed, as his Democratic rivals criticized his handling of the crisis.

Iran fired missiles on Wednesday at bases in Iraq where U.S. troops were stationed in retaliation for Soleimani’s killing in a U.S. drone attack of in Baghdad on Jan. 3.

Trump said no U.S. troops had been harmed in the strikes and Iran “appears to be standing down,” adding that Washington did not want to use its “great military.”

The tit-for-tat actions followed months of tension that has increased since Trump pulled the United States out of Iran’s nuclear pact with world powers in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that have driven down Tehran’s vital oil exports.

Trump said it was time for world powers to replace the 2015 nuclear pact with a new deal so Iran could “thrive and prosper.”