Las Vegas Sun: Nevada Democrats insist Congress must authorize continued Iran operations

Southern Nevada’s congressional delegation is united in its position that President Donald Trump needs approval from Congress to continue military operations against Iran.

Both the Senate and House are expected to vote this week on resolutions limiting the president’s military authority in the Middle East. The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires presidents to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing forces to hostilities and to withdraw those forces within 60 days unless Congress authorizes an extension.

Most Democrats have thrown their support behind the war powers effort after joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran over the weekend. At least six American service members have been killed during the operations.

The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran early Saturday, kicking off the conflict and killing longtime Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The strikes also killed other regime officials and more than 150 people at a girls’ school, Iran claims.

The military action came amid negotiations between the United States and Iran over the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear capabilities.

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., said the aftermath of the initial strikes left her with “more questions for the Trump administration than answers.”

“These strikes came without the approval of Congress or the American people,” Lee wrote on social media. “Throughout history, too often the United States started wars without a plan to end them, losing too many of our sons and daughters along the way.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Central Command said six American service members have been killed in the fighting, all in a strike on a facility in Kuwait. After the Department of Defense announced the initial three deaths from the attack, Trump said in a statement that there would “likely be more.”

The Trump administration has offered several rationales and objectives for the military action.

Trump directly addressed the people of Iran in his initial comments after the strikes, asking them to take over their government after the bombing campaign ends. However, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the conflict was “not a so-called regime change war.”

Last June, Trump said Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated” in a series of strikes. But last month, White House special envoy Steve Witkoff claimed that Iran was “a week away” from having “bombmaking material.”

The administration has officially laid out four goals for the operation: stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, destroy its missile capabilities and navy, and prevent the country from supporting international terrorist groups.

The top diplomat from Oman, which has acted as a mediator between the U.S. and Iran, said shortly before the strikes started that there had been “substantial progress” made between the two countries.

He told CBS News that Iran agreed that they would “never have nuclear material that will create a bomb.”