US Reports: Trump Might Declare War on Iran Without Congress Approval

US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)
US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)
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US Reports: Trump Might Declare War on Iran Without Congress Approval

US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)
US aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln is pictured while it travels through the Suez Canal in Egypt May 9, 2019 (Reuters)

US administration could launch a military strike against Iran without congressional approval, according to US media reports. The administration is relying on key elements drawing links between al-Qaeda and Iran and casting Iran as a terrorist threat to the US.

Sources in the reports indicated that these elements will give Donald Trump's administration the justification it needs to fight Iran under the still-in-effect 2001 use-of-force resolution without congressional approval.

President Trump has said more than once that he does not want to wage a war against Iran, however, the reports noted that the possibility of a US military strike against Tehran is still possible. The strike is particularly supported by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to US media reports.

Congress would not give Trump the green light to a strike unless it was needed, as Congress saw it. Most Democrats, and even some Republicans, refuse to engage US forces in another war in the Middle East.

With Congress unlikely to grant Trump new authority to strike Iran under the current circumstances, and amid a campaign of "maximum pressure" against the regime in Tehran, media reports revealed that Trump administration sent strong signals that they will be ready to make an end run around lawmakers, using the 2001 authorization for the use of military force, if necessary.

The use of military force law gave the president the power to use force against “nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

The United States already included some of Iran's organizations, including the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as terrorist organizations, and Trump and his administration can use the hawks to justify a military strike, or even a war with Tehran, without the need for congressional approval.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has accused Iran of assisting al-Qaeda and being linked to a terrorist threat against the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.

That could give the US administration the justification it needs to fight Iran under the still-in-effect 2001 use-of-force resolution without congressional approval.

Earlier this month, the US deployed an aircraft carrier strike group “Abraham Lincoln” to the region. US officials said that a surge in US forces in the region was a response in part to intelligence-gathering suggesting that the Iranian regime had given proxies a green light to attack US personnel and assets in the region.

Lawyers familiar with the 2001 law and its applications say it's obvious from those moves that the Trump administration is trying to enforce the use-of-force resolution in case the President decided to strike Iran.

Yale University law professor Harold Koh, who served as the State Department's top lawyer under Secretary Hillary Clinton, indicated that the whole thing is building up to the notion that they don't have to go to Congress for approval.

“The theory of war powers has to be that Congress doesn't just sign off once,” said Koh in a telephone interview with NBC News, adding that the “suggestion now that Iran attacked us on 9/11 is ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, Trump pushed back Friday against reports of conflict between Pompeo and Bolton, calling sourcing cited by reporters “bull----.”

“Mike Pompeo is doing a great job. Bolton is doing a great job. They make it sound like it’s a conflict,” the president said in a speech to the National Association of Realtors.

“At least Iran doesn’t know what to think, which at this point may very well be a good thing!” Trump said in a tweet.



Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Halts Russian Troop Advance in Sumy Region

A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
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Zelenskiy Says Ukraine Halts Russian Troop Advance in Sumy Region

A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova
A resident walks at a street near a building damaged by Russian missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Sumy, Ukraine June 13, 2025. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

Ukrainian forces have stopped Russian troops advancing in the northeastern Sumy region and are now battling to regain control along the border with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

In remarks released for publication by his office on Saturday, Zelenskiy said that Moscow has amassed about 53,000 troops in the direction of Sumy, Reuters reported.

"We are leveling the position. The fighting there is along the border. You should understand that the enemy has been stopped there. And the maximum depth at which the fighting takes place is 7 km (4.35 miles) from the border," Zelenskiy said.

Russia's troops have been focusing their assaults in the eastern Donetsk region. But since the start of the month, they have intensified their attacks in the north-east, announcing plans to create a so-called 'buffer zone' in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

The Russian war in Ukraine is in its fourth year, but it has intensified in recent weeks.

Ukraine conducted an audacious drone attack this month that took out multiple aircraft inside Russia and also hit the bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula using underwater explosives.

Moscow ramped up its air assaults after the attack.

Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops had maintained their defensive lines along more than 1,000 kilometres of the frontline. He also dismissed Moscow's claims that Russian troops had crossed the administrative border into the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Zelenskiy said that Russia was sending small assault groups "to get one foot on the administrative border" and make a picture or a video, but these attacks were repelled.

Dnipropetrovsk borders three regions that are partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Zelenskiy acknowledged that Ukraine was unable to regain all of its territory by military force and reiterated his pleas for stronger sanctions on Russia to force Moscow into negotiations to end the war.

Two rounds of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul produced few results that could lead to a ceasefire and a broader peace deal. The two sides agreed only to exchange prisoners of war.

Several swaps have already been conducted this month, and Zelenskiy said he expected them to continue until June 20 or 21.

In separate remarks made on communications platform Telegram on Saturday, he said that a new group of Ukrainian prisoners of war had come home as part of another swap with Russia.

"We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week," Zelenskiy wrote on his personal account.

Ukrainian officials responsible for exchanging prisoners said the vast majority of the soldiers released in the exchange had been held captive since 2022 with many captured during the defence of Mariupol.

The officials said Kyiv had, meanwhile, received the bodies of 1,200 of its soldiers killed in the war with Russia. The bodies were handed over to Ukraine on Friday.

"The agreement is that the exchanges will be completed, and the sides will discuss the next step," Zelenskiy said.