Adedokun Waliyu 
The U.S. Senate on Friday rejected a Democratic-led bid to block President Donald Trump from using further military force against Iran.
The Senate vote was 53 to 47 against a war powers resolution that would have required congressional approval for more hostilities against Iran. The vote was along party lines, except Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman voted no, with Republicans, and Kentucky Republican Rand Paul voted yes, with Democrats.
It was reported by Reuters that the move came hours after the president said he would consider more bombing.
Earlier on Friday, Trump sharply criticised Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran, and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.
He was reacting to Khamenei’s first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the United States launched bombing raids against Iranian nuclear sites.
Chief sponsor of the resolution, Senator Tim Kaine, has tried for years to wrest back Congress’s authority to declare war from both Republican and Democratic presidents.
Reuters noted that Kaine said his latest effort underscored that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole power to declare war and requires that any hostility with Iran be explicitly authorised by a declaration of war or specific authorisation for the use of military force.
“If you think the president should have to come to Congress, whether you are for or against a war in Iran, you’ll support Senate Joint Resolution 59, you’ll support the Constitution that has stood the test of time,” Kaine said in a speech before the vote.
Lawmakers have been pushing for more information about weekend U.S. strikes on Iran, and the fate of Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.
Members of Trump’s national security team held classified briefings on the strikes for the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday and Friday. Many Democratic lawmakers left the briefings saying they had not been convinced that Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated,” as Trump announced shortly after the raid.
The Reuters report quoted Senator Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served as ambassador to Japan during Trump’s first term, as saying that the measure could prevent any president from acting quickly against a country that has been a long-term adversary.
“We must not shackle our president in the middle of a crisis when lives are on the line,” Hagerty said before the vote.
Trump has rejected any suggestion that damage to Iran’s nuclear program was not as profound as he has said. Iran says its nuclear research is for civilian energy production.
Under U.S. law, Senate war powers resolutions are privileged, meaning that the chamber has to promptly consider and vote on the measure, which Kaine introduced this month.
Opponents of the resolution said the strike on Iran was a single, limited operation within Trump’s rights as commander-in-chief, not the start of sustained hostilities.
