deployment of some 50,000 troops<\/a> to the region.<\/p>\nMs. Murkowski said it did not appear that hostilities had ceased, as the administration has claimed, \u201cnor that anything has really changed much other than the words that are being used.\u201d<\/p>\n
For weeks, she has been working with like-minded Republicans who are concerned about an unauthorized war on a draft authorization that would limit the operation and force the president to develop exit criteria. But she said that effort, which faces procedural challenges, is on pause until a lapse in the cease-fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil then, I will support measures to officially end hostilities and bring our men and women home,\u201d she added in a statement. \u201cI will oppose any effort to redefine \u2018hostilities\u2019 in ways that allow the president to wage war indefinitely without seeking congressional approval as outlined by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats on Wednesday called on more Republicans who have continually voted against war powers resolutions to, like Ms. Murkowski, reject the president\u2019s attempt to bypass the war powers law by citing a cease-fire that has not halted all military activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth sides are engaged in a daily war, as defined by international law,\u201d said Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the Democrat who sponsored Wednesday\u2019s war powers resolution. \u201cIs it at a somewhat lower level than the bombing campaign? Yes, I will grant you that. But it is a war by every definition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the vast majority of Republicans indicated agreement with the administration that the current cease-fire with Iran means the hostilities the president notified Congress of on March 2, beginning the 60-day countdown to the president needing to ask Congress to approve continued combat operations, had ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president made it very clear,\u201d Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Wednesday. \u201cClear that the major fighting has halted, clear that the American cease-fire has held for more than a month.\u201d He accused Democrats of \u201cobstructing the president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski, Senator John Curtis, Republican of Utah, had said attacks on Iran must begin to wind down unless Congress provided formal authorization. But he voted against forcing an end to the war on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m totally resolved in my mind,\u201d Mr. Curtis said before casting his vote. \u201cBut we are in a cease-fire, and I want to see how this thing plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats noted that the White House had provided no public evidence that Iran was poised to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, as the president, his cabinet officials and his G.O.P. allies in Congress have claimed was the rationale for launching joint attacks with Israel on Tehran on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said there was no threat of \u201cany action anytime soon by Iran\u201d to develop nuclear weapons that justified a wide-scale military operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t use this phrase a lot,\u201d said Mr. Kaine, the Democrat leading the effort to force weekly votes on ending the war<\/a>. \u201cThe White House has lied to the American public, and every time they say this war is justified to stop Iran\u2019s nuclear program, they are telling the American public a lie.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate on Wednesday blocked Democrats\u2019 seventh attempt to halt the war in Iran, as Republicans banded together…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3827,93,6238,8,19,14213,14212,9,1853,797,12164,7,1071,3745,11259,14209,13937],"class_list":{"0":"post-28544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-collins","9":"tag-democratic-party","10":"tag-donald-j","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-lisa","14":"tag-murkowski","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-republican-party","17":"tag-senate","18":"tag-susan-m","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-trump","21":"tag-united-states-defense-and-military-forces","22":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government","23":"tag-war-and-emergency-powers-us","24":"tag-war-powers-act-1973"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116571769575799346","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}