Washington: The American Senate controlled by Republicans has rejected a movement to limit the ability of President Donald Trump to initiate more military actions against Iran.
The proposal, directed by the Democrats, would have required Trump to obtain the approval of Congress before taking new military measures. But the Senate voted, mainly in the lines of the party, maintaining their powers of war without changes.
The Democratic offer occurred only a few hours after Trump said he would consider more air attacks.
The Senate voted 53 to 47 against a resolution of war powers that would have required the approval of Congress for any new hostilities with Iran. The vote mainly followed the lines of the party, with the exception of the Democrat of Pennsylvania John Fetterman, who put on the side of the Republicans, and the Republican of Kentucky Rand Paul, who supported the Democrats.
Senator Tim Kaine, who directed the resolution, said it was an effort to restore the authority of Congress under the constitution of the United States to declare war, a power that belongs to legislators, not to the president.
“If he believes that the president must come to Congress first, whether or not to support the war with Iran, he will support the joint resolution of the Senate 59. He will support the Constitution that has resisted the test of time,” Kaine said before the vote.
Legislators have continued to press to obtain details about the American attacks of the last weekend about Iran and the current state of the Iran enriched uranium reserve.
Earlier on Friday, Trump abruptly criticized the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, discarded plans to relieve sanctions to Iran and said he was open to more strikes if Iran were enriching Uranium at dangerous levels.
He was responding to Khamenei's comments after a 12 -day conflict with Israel, which ended after the United States launched atariums at Iran's nuclear sites.
'Erased'
The Trump National Security team made closed information sessions for the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives on Thursday and Friday. Many Democrats said they were not convinced by the information sessions that nuclear sites had been “erased”, as Trump had stated.
Oppositors to the resolution of war powers argued that Iran's strike was a limited action and fell within Trump's authority as commander in chief, not a broader military campaign.
Senator Bill Hagerty, Republican of Tennessee and former ambassador to Japan, said the resolution could restrict any president to act quickly in a crisis.
“We should not chain our president in the midst of a crisis when lives are at stake,” Hagerty said.
Trump has repeatedly denied suggestions that the damage to Iran's nuclear program was less serious than was reported. Meanwhile, Iran insists that his nuclear work is only aimed at the use of civil energy.
According to the Law of the United States, the resolutions of the Senate's war powers are considered privileged, which means that they must be voted immediately. Kaine presented the measure earlier this month.
However, for the resolution to enter into force, it would have needed to approve both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, a close ally of Trump, said this week that he did not believe that the moment was correct.
Kaine also presented a similar resolution in 2020, during Trump's first mandate, to limit the presidential powers to the war to Iran. That previous version passed to both cameras with some republican support, but could not cancel Trump's veto.
