WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has argued that the war with Iran is over thanks to a ceasefire that began in early April, an explanation that would eliminate the need for the White House to seek congressional approval.
The statement furthered an argument made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Senate testimony earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. On this basis, the administration has not yet met the requirement under the 1973 law that requires Congressional formal approval for military operations that exceed 60 days.
A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s position, said that as far as the law is concerned, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28, have ended.” The official said that U.S. forces and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire began on April 7.
Despite the extension of the ceasefire, Iran maintains control of the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. Navy maintains a blockade to prevent Iranian oil tankers from entering the sea.
Under the War Powers Resolution, which seeks to limit the president’s military powers, President Donald Trump has until Friday to seek congressional authorization or halt the fighting. The law also allows the government to extend the period by 30 days.
Democrats are urging the administration to formally sanction the Iran war, and the 60-day mark could be a turning point for a slew of Republican lawmakers who support interim action against Tehran but insist on seeking input from Congress over a longer period of time.
“This deadline is not a suggestion, it is a requirement,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. She voted Thursday in favor of a measure to end military action against Iran because Congress has not yet approved the measure. “Further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals and a clear strategy to end the conflict,” she added.
Richard Goldberg, who served as the National Security Council director for countering Iran’s weapons of mass destruction during Trump’s first term, said he had suggested to administration officials that they simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested calling “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Fury.
The new mission, he said, is “essentially a self-defense mission focused on reopening the strait while retaining the right to conduct offensive operations in support of the restoration of freedom of navigation.”
“To me, that solves everything,” added Goldberg, now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish think tank in Washington.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said the administration “understood” the 60-day period was suspended while the two countries were in a ceasefire. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., asked Hegseth about the timeline and later told reporters that the defense secretary “made a very novel argument that I had never heard of before” and “certainly had no legal support.”
Katherine Yon Ebright, an expert on war powers and an advisor to the Brennan Center’s Freedom and National Security Program, said the interpretation would be “a considerable extension of prior legal charades” related to the 1973 law.
“To be very, very clear and unequivocal, there is nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution that indicates that the 60-day period can be suspended or terminated,” she said.
Other presidents have argued that the military actions they took were not intense enough or too intermittent to qualify for a war powers resolution. But Ebright said that’s certainly not the case with Trump’s war on Iran, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on such arguments.
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Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.