Iran announced a new body to oversee the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, signalling tighter control over the strategic waterway after months of disruption linked to its war with the United States and Israel.
Here is the lates on the Middle East war
- President Trump says he was “an hour away” from making a decision to order new strikes on Iran, but that he didn’t at the request of Persian Gulf allies. He said the war is “very popular” and he doesn’t have “enough time” to keep explaining the rationale for it.
- Before Mr. Trump said he called off an attack on Monday, Iran said it had conveyed another amended set of terms for a potential peace deal. Iran also said the U.S., not Iran, had requested a ceasefire.
- Israel launched strikes on Tuesday across Lebanon, while Hezbollah said it carried out attacks against Israeli forces. Lebanese officials say the war between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which has raged despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, has killed more than 3,000 people.
Senate advances resolution to limit Trump’s Iran war powers for first time
The Senate advanced a resolution to limit President Trump’s war powers in Iran on Tuesday, marking a breakthrough for Democrats after seven failed attempts.
Senators approved a motion to discharge the resolution from committee in a 50 to 47 vote. Four Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — joined the bulk of Democrats in favor of advancing the resolution. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to oppose.
The vote marked the first time Cassidy supported advancing a war powers resolution. It came days after he failed to win enough support to advance to a runoff in the Louisiana GOP Senate primary, where Mr. Trump endorsed one of his opponents.
And three Republicans — Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — did not vote, tipping the scales in Democrats’ favor for the first time since they began bringing war powers resolutions related to Iran.
The vote marked only a first step in the Senate. And even if both chambers approved the resolution, the president would be expected to veto it. But Democrats say the move would carry significance and have the potential to change the president’s thinking in the war.
Israel launches strikes in Lebanon; Hezbollah says it carried out attacks
The Israeli military on Tuesday launched a series of strikes across Lebanon, while warning residents of a dozen towns to flee despite a truce in the war with Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency and AFP photographers said the strikes targeted several areas in the Tyre district and Nabatieh province in the country’s south. The top two floors of a building in Maashuq in the Tyre district collapsed after an airstrike, according to AFP images. It also damaged neighboring buildings and parked cars.
A strike on the same town a day prior destroyed a primary healthcare center managed by the Hezbollah-linked Islamic Health Committee, the Lebanese health ministry said.
An airstrike on Tuesday on the Saray neighborhood in Nabatieh, which includes shops, an old mosque and traditional residential buildings, destroyed a large part of it. AFP images showed a plume of smoke rising from the area.
The Israeli military previously issued evacuation warnings for 12 Lebanese towns, 11 of them in the south and one in the eastern Bekaa area. It later repeated the same warning.
In a separate statement, the army said it intercepted a drone from Lebanon.
Hezbollah meanwhile said it carried out several attacks against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, in addition to targeting Iron Dome platforms in Jal Alam and Margaliot in northern Israel.
The Lebanese civil defense on Tuesday said it had lost contact with seven citizens after an Israeli incursion in the southern town of Rashaya al-Fukhar. It said Israeli forces later released four of them, while the other three remain “in Israeli captivity.”
CBS
