Trump administration says its war in Iran has been ‘terminated’ before 60-day deadline
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration argues: war in Iran It has already ended due to the ceasefire that started at the beginning of April; It’s an interpretation that would eliminate the need for the White House to seek congressional approval.
Explanation advances a discussion Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made the case in Senate testimony earlier Thursday when he said the ceasefire had effectively paused the war. According to this justification, the administration has not yet fulfilled the requirement required by the 1973 law to obtain official approval from Congress for military operations exceeding 60 days.
A senior administration official, who discussed the administration’s position on condition of anonymity, said that for the purposes of the law, “hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28 are over.” The US military and Iran have not exchanged fire since a two-week ceasefire that began on April 7, the official said.
Although the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains control of the Strait of Hormuz and the US Navy continuation of the blockade To prevent Iran’s oil tankers from going out to sea.
Under the War Powers Resolution, legislation aimed at restricting a president’s military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or halt the war. The law also allows the administration to extend this period for 30 days.
There are democrats forced the management This 60-day deadline for formal approval of the Iran war would likely be a turning point for some of the Republican lawmakers who support interim action against Tehran but insist on congressional involvement for a longer period of time.
“This deadline is not a proposal, it is a requirement,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favor of a measure that would end military action in Iran due to Congressional disapproval. He added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable objectives and a defined strategy to end the conflict.”
Richard Goldberg, who served as the director responsible for combating Iran’s weapons of mass destruction at the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, said he suggested that administration officials move on to a new operation that he suggested could be called “Epic Transition”, a continuation of Operation Epic Rage.
He said that this new mission “will naturally be a self-defense mission, focusing on the reopening of the strait and at the same time reserving the right to offensive action aimed at restoring freedom of navigation.”
“To me, this solves everything,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish think tank in Washington.
In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration’s “understanding” that the 60-day period was paused while the two countries were in a ceasefire. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who asked Hegseth about the timeline, later told reporters that the defense secretary was “putting forward a very new argument that I’ve never heard before” and “has absolutely no legal support.”
Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel for the Brennan Center’s Freedom and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said the interpretation would be “an important extension of previous legal game-mastering” on the 1973 law.
“To be very, very clear, there is nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution that suggests the 60-day period could be paused or terminated,” he said.
Other presidents have argued that the military action they took was not intense enough or was too intermittent to fall under the War Powers Resolution. However, Ebright said that Trump’s war in Iran will definitely not be such a situation, adding that lawmakers should take a step back against the administration with such an argument.
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AP writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
