In a statement announcing the veto, Trump derided the measure and the Republicans who broke ranks to support it, arguing „Congress should not have passed this resolution.“
„This was a very insulting resolution, introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party,“ Trump said. „The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands.“
„The resolution implies that the President’s constitutional authority to use military force is limited to defense of the United States and its forces against imminent attack. That is incorrect,“ the president added. „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!“
The resolution, sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), now heads back to the Senate for a vote to override Trump’s veto.
But lawmakers likely won’t muster the two-thirds majority required in both the Senate and House to overcome the veto. Few Republicans on Capitol Hill have been willing to buck Trump’s authority over Iran policy.
The resolution cleared the House on March 11, with just six Republicans voting in favor. The Senate in February passed the resolution with the support of eight Republicans.
Democrats and a handful of Republicans first sought last year to head off conflict with Iran as tensions ratcheted up in the Middle East.
Those efforts gained renewed urgency in January when Trump ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Iran retaliated with missile strikes against U.S. military bases in Iraq.
A March 11 rocket attack in Iraq blamed on Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia militia, also killed U.S. and British service members at Camp Taji. A U.S. and British airstrike the next day targeted five of the group’s weapons sites in Iraq.
Tensions reignited in mid-April as Iranian boats came dangerously close to U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships in the northern Persian Gulf.
Trump tweeted a week later that he ordered the Navy to “shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.“ The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. John Hyten, said the tweet amounted to a warning to Iran.
The legislation calls for an end to military hostilities against Iran without congressional authorization.
Source: politico.com
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