War Powers Act Ends 'Hostilities' with Iran
A senior official in US President Donald Trump's administration said late on Thursday that the "hostilities" between the United States and Iran that began on February 28 are "over", for reasons related to the War Powers Act.
"The two sides agreed to a two-week ceasefire starting on Tuesday, April 7, which was later extended. There has been no exchange of fire between the US armed forces and Iran since Tuesday, April 7," Reuters reported.
The Times: Trump will carry out new strikes to declare victory
In a report in the British newspaper The Times, the newspaper noted that US President Donald Trump believes that his naval blockade will force Iran to surrender, but "the calculations look very different" from Tehran's point of view.
Iran believes it can withstand the economic fallout of the blockade, while Trump faces domestic pressure due to rising fuel prices as the midterm congressional elections approach.
The report added that the Iranian regime believes that "another round of fighting" may be necessary to convince Washington that military action will not open the Strait of Hormuz and will not push Iran to surrender, noting that Trump's likely option may be to carry out "limited strikes" on Iranian infrastructure and then declare victory, a scenario that the newspaper says Tehran may work to thwart.
What is the War Powers Act?
The War Powers Resolution is a 1973 U.S. federal legislation aimed at restricting the ability of the President of the United States to engage armed forces in foreign conflicts without explicit congressional approval, in an effort to rebalance the executive and legislative branches in decisions of war and peace.
The law was passed in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, after Congress saw that presidents had used their powers as commanders of the armed forces to expand military intervention without formal authorization, and the act came to restore Congress's constitutional role in declaring war, a role that had been effectively reversed during previous decades.
The law requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of the start of any military operation or deployment overseas, emphasizing that no combat operation can continue for more than 60 days without congressional authorization or a formal declaration of war, with the president an additional month to withdraw troops if Congress does not agree to continue the mission.
Since its passage, the law has faced objections from U.S. presidents who saw it as restricting their executive powers in the National Security Administration, and President Richard Nixon vetoed it before Congress overrode it and became effective, and subsequent presidents have circumvented the law by classifying military operations as "not acts of hostilities" or "limited strikes" that do not require a time limit.