The two-week ceasefire the United States agreed to with Iran on Tuesday not only sets a deadline to seal a deal with Tehran, but leaves just days before the expiration of the 60-day legal limit for waging war without congressional authorisation that is set out under America’s War Powers Resolution.
This has left open the question of how the conflict will proceed if diplomacy fails and the legal clock runs out.
“Almost all the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the agreement to be finalised and consummated,” Trump said in a social media post on Tuesday.
The Trump administration filed its war powers notification with Congress on March 2, two days after the US and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran under Operation Epic Fury on February 28.
The War Powers Resolution, enacted in 1973, requires the US president to consult Congress “in every possible instance” before introducing armed forces into hostilities and to withdraw forces within 60 days unless Congress declares war or authorises the use of force.
The law also provides expedited procedures for lawmakers to vote on resolutions blocking further military action.
The 60-day deadline under the War Powers Resolution falls around May 1.
The ceasefire announced on Tuesday is set to expire around April 22 – around nine days before that legal deadline.
The president may extend the deadline by an additional 30 days if he certifies to Congress that the safety of US forces requires their continued presence during withdrawal.
However, the resolution does not explicitly address whether a pause in fighting stops or resets the clock, a legal grey area that past administrations have exploited.
The Trump administration notified the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” shortly before launching strikes on Iran on February 28, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, with the White House insisting the move complied with its obligations under the War Powers Resolution.
Congressional Democrats have signalled they will renew their push to assert war power authority when lawmakers return from recess next week.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference in New York on Wednesday that when Congress reconvenes following its recess, Senate Democrats will push for a vote on a war powers resolution to restrict the government’s military operations in Iran.
Schumer on Wednesday called Trump “a military moron” in a post on social media, saying the war had left the country “worse off” than when it began.
“If he restarts this war we will be in even worse shape. We must pass our War Powers Resolution to end this war for good,” he wrote.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Tuesday that his caucus would bring another war powers resolution to the floor next week “as soon as it becomes available to us to do so, as a matter of privilege”.
Congress previously rejected attempts to restrict the president’s war authority.
In March, the Senate voted 53 to 47 to block a war powers resolution introduced by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine from advancing to the floor, with Republican Senator Rand Paul the only member of his party to vote in favour. The House rejected a similar measure the following day, 219 to 212.
Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, one of four Democrats who voted against the House resolution, said on Tuesday he would reverse his position and support the measure when it comes to the floor, after Trump threatened that “a whole civilisation will die” in Iran in a social media post on Tuesday.
In practice, multiple administrations have waged military operations without congressional authorisation.
In 2011, the Obama administration kept US forces engaged in a Nato air campaign in Libya well past the 60-day deadline, arguing the operations did not constitute “hostilities” under the resolution. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
