Thirteen Votes, Same Result: The Senate Declines Again to Rein In the Iran War

The latest Iran war powers vote failed Thursday by a single ballot, 49 to 50, marking the thirteenth time the Senate has considered ending American involvement in the conflict and the thirteenth time it has declined.

The measure, brought by New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, sought to discharge from the Foreign Relations Committee a resolution directing the president to withdraw US forces from hostilities against Iran absent a declaration of war or specific congressional authorisation.

It arrived exactly one week after the previous attempt failed, and it fell along nearly identical lines.

Who Crossed Over

Three Republicans supported advancing the resolution: Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. One Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted against it.

Mitch McConnell, currently in a rehabilitation facility, was the only senator not voting.

That arithmetic explains the outcome. With one absence and one Democratic defection, three Republican votes were not enough — a pattern that has held remarkably stable across five months of these efforts.

The Argument on the Floor

Gillibrand framed her case around accumulating costs rather than abstractions about constitutional authority. She asked colleagues how many more service members would be lost, how many more billions families would pay at the pump, and how many more assurances from the administration would be required before Congress acted.

She argued the chamber holds the power to end the war and should use it. All eight of the resolution’s sponsors are Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The resolution had already passed the House on July 23 — a result widely described at the time as a symbolic rebuke, since without Senate concurrence and a presidential signature it carries no legal force.

One Vote That Moved and Moved Back

The Cassidy episode illustrates how these votes function in practice. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana previously joined Democrats, then reversed after a public confrontation with the president and a demand for a briefing on the situation.

He received the briefing and switched back. Cassidy has acknowledged openly that his vote served as leverage to extract information, while saying he does not entirely endorse the current approach.

That is a fairly candid description of what war powers resolutions have become in this Congress: instruments of pressure and information-gathering more than serious vehicles for ending a war.

A Conflict That Keeps Widening

The vote landed as a brief pause in fighting collapsed.

The administration had announced over the weekend that it was again halting strikes to create space for diplomacy. On Tuesday night, Central Command said Iranian forces launched multiple ballistic missiles in an attempted surprise attack on American forces in the region; all were intercepted. A heavy wave of American strikes followed Wednesday night.

Iran said Thursday that US strikes killed three of its soldiers.

The geography of the violence continues to expand. Jordan reported intercepting Iranian missiles for a second consecutive day. Kuwait said a strike there killed one person. And on Wednesday, drone strikes at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta set fires aboard two natural gas vessels — apparently the first time Egypt has been hit.

The origin of the Damietta strike remains unknown. Iran’s Houthi allies have targeted shipping in the nearby Red Sea, but no attribution has been established.

The Blockade by the Numbers

Central Command said Thursday it has redirected 24 commercial vessels since the blockade on Iranian ports resumed earlier this month, up from 20 the previous day. American forces have boarded two ships accused of violating it and fired on two others to disable them.

Washington continues to insist the Strait of Hormuz remains open to commercial traffic. The shipping data tells a different story: transits remain extremely low, with operators deterred by Iranian threats against vessels.

That gap between official position and observed behaviour is much of why fuel prices have stayed elevated.

More Sanctions

The Treasury Department sanctioned Mahan Air, Iran’s largest airline, on Thursday. Officials said that although it presents itself as a civilian carrier, it has long enabled the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — providing travel for Qods Force personnel, facilitating military training, and supporting the procurement and movement of drone systems and weapons.

The action also targeted several companies doing business with the airline, most based in China. Among them is Shanghai Wings, which the Treasury said coordinated shipments of electronics from China to Iran, along with its managing director Tang Xin.

This is at least the twelfth round of sanctions since the war began on February 28. The previous round, announced only a day earlier, targeted two entities involved in coordinating transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

What the Public Thinks

Polling released this week by the Associated Press and NORC found roughly two-thirds of American adults say the war has not been worth fighting.

The finding cuts across party lines to a degree that is unusual. Large majorities of Democrats and independents hold that view — and so do about 37 percent of Republicans.

That number is the one worth watching. Congressional Republicans have held nearly unanimous in these votes, but a substantial minority of their own voters no longer supports the conflict, and the midterms arrive in November.

A Development in Gaza

Separately, the president announced Thursday evening that Hamas and his international Board of Peace have agreed on the next steps in a peace framework that includes the group’s disarmament in Gaza.

He described it in a social media post as a historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in the territory, and called it a major step toward lasting peace and security.

American and Board of Peace officials told reporters that Hamas had communicated agreement to the final text through mediators, including decommissioning weapons.

The timetable is not clear, and disarmament agreements have historically been easier to announce than to verify. But if implemented, it would remove one of the Iranian-aligned groups from the regional equation.

Where This Leaves Things

The Senate is scheduled to begin its recess on August 10, and Thursday’s vote is likely the last on this question before then.

Nothing about the outcome changes the trajectory of the war. What the tally does show is a chamber that has now taken the same vote thirteen times without meaningfully shifting — while the conflict has drawn in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen and, this week, Egypt.

Gillibrand said afterward that she will keep pressing Congress to reassert its constitutional role. On current evidence, that will require something to change outside the chamber first.