The United States military has joined Israel and attacked more than 1,000 targets in Iran and assassinated many of its top officials, including supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Below is a look at the legality of the US attacks, which critics say exceed the president’s authority and fail to comply with international law.
What has Trump said?
US President Donald Trump has provided varying objectives and justifications.
He has said he felt Iran was going to strike first and the attack was meant to eliminate imminent threats to the United States, its military bases overseas and allies, although he did not provide details and some claims were not backed by US intelligence reports.Trump also said Iran could obtain a nuclear weapon within one month, but he did not provide evidence, and this contradicted his claims in June that the US military had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.
Presidential power to use the military
The attacks on Iran are pushing the boundaries of Trump’s constitutional authority, according to legal experts.
Under the US constitution, the president commands the armed forces and directs foreign relations, but only Congress has the power to declare war.
Presidents of both parties have conducted military strikes without congressional approval when it was in the national interest, but less intense in duration and scope than what would be considered a war, a limit that Trump may be testing.
Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have both described the action as a war, and Hegseth called it “the most lethal, most complex and most-precision aerial operation in history”.
Trump said it could last five weeks or more and cautioned that there will be more US casualties. Congress has provided authorisation for large military operations, such as President George W Bush’s invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
War power resolution
The War Powers Resolution (WPR) of 1973 acts as a check on presidential power.
Under the WPR, the president can only involve the military in an armed conflict when Congress has declared war or provided specific authority or in response to an attack on US territory or its military.
It requires the president to report regularly to Congress, which the administration started to do on Monday.
Source: dawn.com/news
