Trump sinks bid to limit his war powers

WASHINGTON－US President Donald Trump has vetoed a resolution that said he must get approval from Congress before engaging in further military actions against Iran. He called the move "insulting" to the presidency.

The nonbinding congressional resolution was introduced first in the House of Representatives after the United States launched an airstrike that killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. There was concern in Congress that Teheran and Washington were perilously close to all-out conflict, and some lawmakers wanted to restrain further actions Trump might take against Iran.

The US Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war. Even so, Trump said the resolution implied that his own constitutional authority to use military force was limited to defending the United States and its forces against imminent attack.

"That is incorrect," Trump said in a statement on Wednesday."We live in a hostile world of evolving threats and the Constitution recognizes that the president must be able to anticipate our adversaries' next moves and take swift and decisive action in response. That's what I did!"

In the statement, Trump said he had used his veto because the resolution－a rare bipartisan rebuke to the president approved in March－was based on "misunderstandings of facts and law."

The resolution said the US president cannot commit his military to hostilities against Iran or any part of its government or military without explicit authorization from Congress.

It also came in the wake of rising conflict between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf region.

Tensions rose after the Trump administration withdrew from a nuclear deal between Teheran and world powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions against Iran. In May last year, the US sent thousands more troops, as well as long-range bombers and an aircraft carrier, to the Middle East in response to what it called a growing threat of Iranian attacks on US interests in the region.

Close to full-scale war

The tensions spiked when US forces killed Soleimani, one of Iran's most powerful generals, in January. Iran responded with a ballistic missile attack on a base in western Iraq where US troops were present. No US soldiers were killed, but more than 100 suffered traumatic brain injuries from the blasts.

Trump did not consult with congressional leaders ahead of the attack on Soleimani, stoking the concerns in Congress that Teheran and Washington were dangerously close to full-scale war.

The White House sent Congress a notification explaining the rationale for killing Soleimani, but kept it classified. Some Democrats were unconvinced that the threat posed by Soleimani was imminent or that other alternatives to the killing were pursued in good faith.

After Trump administration officials briefed lawmakers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, announced a vote on the resolution, calling the killing of Soleimani "provocative and disproportionate".

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine hit out at Trump for blocking the resolution.

"I urge my colleagues to join me in voting to override his veto－Congress must vote before sending our troops into harm's way," he tweeted.

US media reported that the Senate on Thursday was expected to attempt to override Trump's veto, but it is expected to fall short of the two-thirds' support needed, US media reported, given the Republican majority in the Senate.

It is the second time Trump has vetoed an attempt by Congress to control his military initiatives.

In 2019, he blocked a resolution to end US support for Saudi Arabia's offensive in Yemen.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that his country will not accept the renewal of a United Nations arms ban against the Islamic republic, state TV reported.

Any attempt to renew the ban on arms sales to Teheran is a violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that mandates the lifting of the embargo in due time, Rouhani said in a Cabinet meeting.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that Washington was considering "every possibility" to renew the UN ban on sales of conventional arms to Iran. It is due to expire in October.

Agencies - Xinhua