Congressional Democrats will introduce a war powers resolution prohibiting military action against Oman, after US President Donald Trump threatened to bomb the country for holding talks with Iran.
Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Trump warned that “if Oman gets in the way” of his efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz via a peace deal favorable to the US, he would “bomb the sh*t out of them.” Trump was reacting to news that Oman and Iran were closing in on a deal to reopen the strait, which would reportedly involve shipping companies paying transit fees to Iran – a strategic loss for the US.
In a statement on Tuesday, US Senator Tim Kaine said that he will introduce a war powers resolution “prohibiting military action against Oman” when the Senate returns from summer recess next month.
“President Trump is increasingly deranged in his one-man campaign to threaten and initiate wars all over the globe,” Kaine said. “His wars are illegal since they are not approved by Congress, but he keeps on despite the massive toll on our troops, their families, the pocketbooks of everyday Americans, our stock of munitions and our alliances around the globe.”
Kaine added that he hopes to “find some Republican colleagues to join with Democrats and check this blindly stumbling power-drunk president from inflicting more damage on the US and the world.”
Without support from a majority of Senators, war powers resolutions are largely symbolic. Democrats in both houses of Congress have filed more than a dozen such resolutions since the US began attacking Iran in February, with one passing the House in July. However, with Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, only one war powers resolution – a non-binding and therefore toothless ‘concurrent resolution’ – has actually passed the upper house.
A memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran in June set a 60-day window to bring the conflict to an end and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. With talks deadlocked, the memorandum expired on Monday. Trump has since ruled out any extension to the present ceasefire, telling reporters on Monday evening that he believes Iran is “not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary.”
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran is prepared “to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region” if diplomacy fails, and to launch “timely and precise strikes” to break the US naval blockade on Iranian ports if necessary.
After suggesting that he may declare “the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the US” last week, Trump posted a map of the Persian Gulf with the strait labeled “new US territory” on Tuesday. “Just as Trump correctly wrote the name of the eternal Persian Gulf, soon his delusion regarding the Strait of Hormuz will either be corrected or we will correct the delusions of this deluded man,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi replied.