U.S President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed a congressional resolution restricting his powers to unilaterally take military action against Iran.
Calling the bipartisan bill an "insulting resolution" Trump said it was part of a Democratic strategy to win the November 3 election by dividing the Republican Party. "The few Republicans who voted for it played right into their hands," Trump said in a statement published on the website of the White House.
The U.S. President alleged that the S.J. Resolution 68 was based on misunderstandings of facts and law.
"Contrary to the resolution, the United States is not engaged in the use of force against Iran," he said in the statement while defending the "decisive action" taken by him in January to eliminate Iran's Qods (Quds) Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq. He maintained that the elimination of Soleimani was "fully authorized by law, including by the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 and Article II of the Constitution".
President Trump also said the resolution " greatly harmed the President’s ability to protect the United States, its allies, and its partners," and added: "The resolution implies that the President’s constitutional authority to use military force is limited to defense of the United States and its forces against imminent attack" which he said is incorrect.
"We live in a hostile world of evolving threats, and the Constitution recognizes that the President must be able to anticipate our adversaries’ next moves and take swift and decisive action in response. That’s what I did!", he wrote in his statement.
The Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans hold a 53-to 47-seat majority, is expected to hold a veto-override vote as soon as Thursday.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted 228-175 on January 30 to approve two measures that would put limits to Trump’s ability to go to war with Iran including measures to block funding for any use of offensive military force in or against Iran without congressional approval.
The United States is seeking to extend the U.N. arms embargo on Iran as a member of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran which President Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018.
Iranian officials have yet not made any comments on Trump's veto of the resolution.
