The Republican-majority House has approved a measure requiring Donald Trump to end the war in Iran or request authorization from Congress.
It is the third time that the Chamber has asked the US president to stop the war with symbolic measures. Seven deputies voted with the Democrats on the resolution, which was approved with 220 votes in favor and 204 against.
The approval comes 49 days before the midterm elections. It is unclear whether the Senate will consider the measure before November. A similar resolution was passed by the House in July but has not yet been considered by the Senate.
Yesterday:
Tehran freezes Trump. The head of Iran’s highest security body has rejected any possibility of dialogue with the United States after the tycoon said he was “open” to dialogue. “No talks until Iran’s conditions are met. Period!” thundered Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. A tile for the Commander-in-Chief denied even at home and by none other than the Pentagon. The Defense Department has in fact put in black and white in a report that the shortage of ammunition linked to the war in the Middle East, denied on several occasions by the US administration, exists. The Pentagon Inspector General’s report estimates that between February 28 and June 30, Operation Epic Fury cost approximately $33.4 billion. Of this, as much as 22.3 were spent on ammunition, causing “strategic stockpile shortages” and revealing “bottlenecks within supply industries.” In addition to damaging hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in the Middle Eastern region and the US air fleet, which reported four F-15s destroyed, one F-35 and seven KC-135 tanker aircraft damaged as well as 30 MQ-9 Reaper attack drones shattered. For its part, Tehran continues to reiterate the same conditions to end the war: the stop to all aggression (even against regional allies such as Hezbollah), compensation for war damages, the lifting of the blockade on Hormuz, in addition to the sanctions and the unfreezing of its assets frozen abroad. Requests unchanged in months of diplomatic stalemate, in which China also tries to mediate covertly. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will be in Beijing on Wednesday to see his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. The meeting comes shortly before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States for a summit with Trump next week. A summit in whose agenda the war in the Middle East will have a prominent place but above all the interruptions of energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the entire Middle East is in excitement over the Yemeni developments. Closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait would have “catastrophic” consequences, Qatar has warned. Even if the Houthis continue to reassure that ‘navigation remains safe’, the fighting does not abate, with at least 13 new Saudi raids on Taiz and the Houthi rebels raising the alarm for the first time in the holiest place in Islam, Mecca. Riyadh’s strongman, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, flew to Cairo to speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Together the two leaders underlined the “common commitment to guaranteeing freedom and security of maritime navigation in Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and in the Red Sea”. Israel has also moved in the shadows, giving, according to Israeli media, intelligence assistance to Riyadh through the American CentCom. The objective is the same as that of Washington which would have denied direct support to Riyadh: to support the Saudis, but without getting directly involved in another military front. It is no coincidence that last week the IDF chief of staff, General Eyal Zamir, met the commanders in Germany of the armies of several Arab countries. War with Iran and escalation with the Houthis are on the table.