US President Donald Trump has criticised Congress for passing the ‘Authorisation for the Use of Military Force’ bill, which was designed to end the war in Iran.
In a social media post, Trump described it as “ill-timed and pointless”.
The US Senate had previously backed the bill, which calls for an end to the war against Iran and obliges US President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval should he decide to resume it. This is the first such resolution on military authorisation to have been passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The bill was approved on 23 June by a Senate vote of 50 to 48, with four Republicans joining the Democrats. The document requires Trump to withdraw US troops from the conflict with Iran, unless Congress specifically authorises military action in the region.
“These senators have just made my job more difficult, but I will get it done one way or another, because that’s what I always do,” Trump emphasised on his social media platform, Truth Social.
As Trump wrote, just at a time when Iran is “ready to give us everything” and “respects the United States” and him personally, “the US Senate has decided to hold an ill-timed and pointless vote on the Authorisation for the Use of Military Force, signalling to the world’s number one sponsor of terror that the United States does not like what I am doing with him, and that I must stop it”.
The resolution will not be submitted to Trump for his signature and is therefore, in terms of legal force, a matter for debate and is largely symbolic in nature.
Over recent months, Democratic senators have repeatedly put bills to end the war to a vote, but each time they have failed due to Republican opposition.
Washington and Tehran are currently negotiating a peace agreement against the backdrop of a ceasefire.