WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism over the Iran war on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, shortly before his administration asked Congress for tens of billions of dollars to pay for the conflict.<\/p>\n
Several Republicans in the closed-door meeting said Trump engaged in a shouting match with Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who said the administration needed to explain a framework deal Trump signed last week that provides financial incentives for Iran but does not accomplish any of the goals he laid out at the war\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people need to know more than we are being told,\u201d Cassidy told reporters. \u201cIt does not appear, although I don\u2019t know for sure, that the course of this is going the way that we were told.\u201d<\/p>\n
The high-volume exchange with a member of Trump\u2019s own party was another example of how the war has weighed on Trump ahead of November elections that will determine control of Congress. Just one in four Americans believes the war was worth its costs, a Reuters\/Ipsos poll found, and Trump\u2019s approval rating is at its lowest level since he returned to office last year.<\/p>\n
The exchange came one day after the Senate voted to direct Trump to end the war in a largely symbolic rebuke. Cassidy was one of four Republicans to back the resolution, along with opposition Democrats.<\/p>\n
Trump did not mention the exchange with Cassidy, who was unseated by a Trump-backed challenger in a primary election earlier this year. Later, he criticized the Senate vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran sees that, they go \u2018what\u2019s that all about\u2019. Now you know, it\u2019s meaningless, right?\u201d Trump told reporters at the White House.<\/p>\n
Several hours later, the administration asked Congress for $70 billion to cover the cost of the war, adding to the $867 billion U.S. military budget.<\/p>\n
In a Wednesday evening post on X, Cassidy thanked Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff for \u201cthe thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns,\u201d Cassidy said.<\/p>\n
The initial accord between the U.S. and Iran has lifted Iran\u2019s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing traffic to flow again through a waterway that previously handled a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.<\/p>\n
Benchmark oil prices fell on Wednesday to their lowest level since before the war started as supply concerns eased further. But conflicting accounts have emerged over elements of the deal, which has prompted criticism of Trump at home and in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Financial incentives for Iran, inspections of Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities, control of the strait and Israel\u2019s parallel war in Lebanon have all been disputed, highlighting the fragility of the accord.<\/p>\n
The deal sets up 60 days of talks to tackle thornier details, including Iran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n
The proposed peace deal has also been met with skepticism in the Middle East, where many states came under attack from Iran during the war and view the accord as too generous to Tehran, including a $300 billion fund and the waiver of some sanctions.<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s Gulf allies fear the reconstruction fund could help Iran to rebuild its military. The accord also does not address Tehran\u2019s ballistic missile capacity.<\/p>\n
The deal requires Iran to allow shipping to flow freely through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days, and Tehran has suggested it might impose tolls after that point. Iran could propose environmental, navigation and security fees in upcoming talks with Gulf states, according to a diplomat briefed on the talks. Washington and its Gulf allies oppose such fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to do anything that undermines the security of our allies, our longstanding allies in the region,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Kuwait City, where the U.S. embassy resumed operations after a months-long stoppage due to the war.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Washington, Lebanon and Israel discussed a U.S.-backed proposal for Israeli forces to pull out of some of the territory it invaded in the war and hand it to Lebanese army control.<\/p>\n
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not pull troops out of the region.<\/p>\n
Israel has been battling Hezbollah in Lebanon since the militant group attacked Israel on March 2 in support of Iran, and Tehran has made a cessation of hostilities there a central tenet of its demands in any peace deal with the U.S.<\/p>\n
An Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon killed at least two people on Wednesday, Lebanese sources told Reuters, while Israel said it struck two armed Hezbollah fighters. It was not immediately clear if the incidents were the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump faced pointed criticism over the Iran war on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[34042,34],"class_list":["post-176829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-editors-picks","tag-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116810247458999794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}