Trump admin says Iran conflict ‘terminated’ – AP

The temporary truce with Tehran counts as the end of war, and no congressional approval is needed, the White House has reportedly said

The US-Israeli war on Iran has already been “terminated,” and the Trump administration believes it does not need an extension from Congress to continue the fighting, the Associated Press has reported, citing sources.

The report comes as a deadline mandated by the 1973 War Powers Act rapidly approaches. The legislation limits any military action launched by the president without congressional authorization to 60 days. 

The White House insists that, for the purposes of the law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28, have terminated,” an unnamed senior administration official told AP on Friday. Tehran and Washington reached a two-week ceasefire on April 7, with the truce extended indefinitely since then.

The assessment echoes the stance voiced by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth during hearings in the Senate on Thursday. The Pentagon chief said the conflict has been “paused” since the ceasefire was implemented, arguing that in the administration’s “understanding” the 60-day period was on hold as well.

Read more

Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who grilled Hegseth about the timeline, told the press that the secretary offered a “very novel argument that I’ve never heard before,” which “certainly has no legal support.” Multiple legal experts have said that the 60-day period envisioned by the act cannot be “terminated” or “paused.”  

That unorthodox view of the 1973 legislation, however, has been backed by some experts. Richard Goldberg, a former official with the National Security Council during Trump’s first term and current senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington-based think tank, claimed the interpretation was viable.

Launching a new operation later would help to circumvent the congressional approval requirement, Goldberg claimed, stating that the move “solves it all” in his opinion. A new attack on Iran “would inherently be a mission of self-defense focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation,” he suggested. 

Since the ceasefire was announced, Washington has been pouring additional troops and hardware into the Middle East, prompting widespread concern that the truce is only a pause prior to the renewal of the hostilities. Three aircraft carrier strike groups, as well as multiple marine expeditionary groups, are currently active in the region, with some of the units enforcing Trump’s naval blockade of Iran, and others appearing to be on standby.