The Democrat-led US House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution Thursday forcing President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval before taking any new military measures against Iran.
224 TO 194 VOTES IN FAVOR OF THE MEASURE
The mostly symbolic war powers resolution was approved after nearly all House Democrats were joined by three Republicans and one independent lawmaker to vote 224-194 in favor of the measure.
The vote took place almost a week after Trump, a Republican, signed off on a US drone strike in Iraq that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force.
Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the assassination outside an airport in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, had made the world more dangerous by stirring up an already turbulent region. “After nearly two decades at war, President Trump has further risked the safety and security of America, our service members, and our allies by escalating tensions with Iran to a dangerous new level,” Nadler wrote on Twitter.
Republicans, however, argued that Iran needed to be tackled and that Trump was already allowed to greenlight such strikes thanks to a 2002 war authorization passed by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.