Republican senators have blocked a largely Democratic-led amendment that would restrict President Donald Trump’s authority to militarily strike Iran without first obtaining congressional approval. RNA - During a voting session on Friday, the proposal by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Tom Udall was rejected after forty-one Republicans voted against it.
The vote, however, remains open for several hours so that nine other Republican senators as well as Democrats come to the chamber to vote.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters that “the American people are very afraid that this president, even if he doesn’t want to start a war, would bumble us into one.”
For the amendment to be added to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), supporters need 60 yes votes.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) had told The Hill that “I don’t think it will get 60 votes.”
Also, Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said he was confident of defeating the measure.
According to Press TV, tensions increased between the US and Iran after the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) shot down an intruding American spy drone in the country’s southern coastal province of Hormozgan on June 20.
Following the downing of the RQ-4A drone, Trump claimed he had called off US strikes on three different Iranian sites 10 minutes before they were planned to be launched.
A few days later, the White House introduced new sanctions that targeted Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and senior commanders of Navy, Aerospace, and Ground Forces of the IRGC.
Washington is also set to slap bans on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is seen as the architect of a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, which Washington abruptly abandoned last year. The US reinstated its unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic following its exit from the landmark deal.
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