Trump’s illegal measures against Iran directed by Israel lobby: Analyst

US President Donald Trump’s illegal measures and threats of war against Iran is directed by the Israel lobby and highlights Trump’s ignorance of American and international laws, a former US Senate candidate says.

News ID: 449060

Date: 15 February 2020 - 12:03

RNA - “I don’t think Donald Trump understands the Constitution of the United States; he certainly doesn’t understand international law, and he certainly does not understand the foreign policy of the Republican Party,” said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and pastor in San Antonio, Texas.

“Trump is doing what he is doing because of the power of the Israel lobby in the United States, he’s doing this because of all the rabid neoconservatives that surround him,” Dankof told Press TV on Saturday.

“Trump has chosen to undertake a course of action that is not only illegal, it is downright dangerous because Iran will defend itself and I think if he persists with this policy, the United States is likely to get into a wider war ,” he added.

The Senate approved a bipartisan measure Thursday aimed at limiting Trump’s authority to launch military operations against Iran, sharply rebuking his foreign policy.

The rebuke was the Senate’s first major vote since acquitting Trump on impeachment charges last week. Trump has waned he will veto the war powers resolution if it reaches his desk. There is not expected to be enough support to gather the two-thirds Senate majority to override a veto.

The measure, authored by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, says Trump must gain approval from Congress before engaging in further military action against Iran. “An offensive war requires a congressional debate and vote,″ Kaine said.

Trump warned the Senate on Wednesday against curbing his power to wage war against Iran, saying "it would allow Tehran to act with impunity."

Trump said the Senate measure "sends a very bad signal. The Democrats are only doing this (limiting his power) as an attempt to embarrass the Republican Party. Don’t let it happen!"

In January, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed its own version of the law after Trump’s order to assassinate top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Iraq.

The US drone strike that targeted Lt. Gen. Soleimani on January 3 prompted Iran’s retaliatory missile strike against US-occupied bases in Iraq, dramatically escalating tensions and raising fears of a war.

The US terrorist attack claimed the lives of general Soleimani, Iran’s top anti-terror commander, as well as his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s anti-terror PMU, along with several others.

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