Trump administration says Iran truce 'terminated' war before congressional deadline

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON — US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has argued that the clock has paused on a deadline for the Trump administration to seek approval from Congress for the US-Israeli war with Iran.

Hegseth was responding to questions from members of the Senate, or upper chamber, on Thursday.

President Donald Trump faced a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date was most likely to pass without altering the course of the war.

Friday is the 60th day since Trump formally notified Congress of the strikes against Iran on 2 March. US law requires a president to "terminate any use of United States Armed Forces" within 60 days of such a notification unless Congress allows a continuation.

Answering questions from senators on Thursday, Hegseth said: "We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire."

A senior administration official said hostilities with Iran had "terminated", emphasizing that a ceasefire had been in effect since early April.

"For War Powers Resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28, have terminated," said the official, describing the administration's thinking.

There has been no ⁠exchange of fire between the US armed forces and Iran since a fragile ceasefire began more than three weeks ago, the official added.

The statement furthers the argument laid out by Hegseth during testimony in the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war.

Earlier, analysts and congressional aides had said they expected Trump to notify Congress that he planned a 30-day extension or to disregard the deadline.

While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the US Navy is maintaining a blockade to prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea..

Democrats have pushed the administration for formal approval of the Iran war, and the 60-day mark would likely have been a turning point for a swath of Republican lawmakers who backed temporary action against Tehran but insisted on congressional input for something longer.

“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favor of a measure that would end military action in Iran since Congress hadn’t given its approval. She added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close.

Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, said he has recommended to administration officials to simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested could be called “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Epic Fury.

That new mission, he said, “would inherently be a mission of self-defense focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.”

“That to me solves it all,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.

During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration’s “understanding” that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire.

Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said that interpretation would be a “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” related to the 1973 law.

“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” she said.

Other presidents have argued that the military action they’ve taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump’s war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, Ebright said, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.