U.S.-Iran Tensions Fuel New War Powers Debate in Congress

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Security Brief Plus. What’s on tap today: Lawmakers push to rein in Trump’s war powers authorities over Iran, Russia and Turkey call for a cease-fire in Libya, and few details emerge on the Ukrainian plane crash in Tehran.

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On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump pushed to ease tensions with Iran following its missile attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq. But the near-miss of major conflict has reignited the debate on Capitol Hill over the authority the president has to carry out strikes on foreign targets without prior congressional approval.

Today the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is expected to vote on a war powers resolution to limit the president’s ability to carry out military actions against Iran without congressional authorization. The vote follows a U.S. strike that killed senior Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani and retaliatory attacks by Iran that raised fears of an all-out war.

Lawmakers incensed. Top Trump administration officials gave Congress a classified briefing on the decision to assassinate Suleimani, but many Democratic lawmakers—and several Republicans—were none too pleased with the briefing. “The worst briefing I’ve seen—at least on a military issue—in my nine years [in the Senate],” Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, said afterward.

“The administration took this action without consulting Congress,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday. “This action endangered our service members, diplomats, and others by risking a serious escalation of tensions with Iran.”

Pentagon says Iran aimed to kill. Meanwhile at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to tamp down speculation that Tehran intentionally avoided U.S. casualties in its Tuesday night strike. After briefing members of Congress, Milley told reporters he assessed that the missiles were intended to “kill personnel.”

Calls for a Libya cease-fire. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for a cease-fire in Libya, demonstrating their growing clout in the country’s civil war. In September, Moscow clandestinely sent several hundred mercenaries to Libya to support Gen. Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA)’s bid to take Tripoli. Ankara recently deployed troops to back the internationally recognized government based in the capital and fighting Haftar’s forces.

The calls for a cease-fire come as the LNA consolidates control outside Tripoli. The government announced Tuesday that Haftar had seized the coastal city of Sirte, under siege since April, severely weakening the government’s authority and reducing its control to a small strip of territory that surrounds Tripoli.

Questions remain about plane crash in Tehran. A Ukrainian Boeing 737-800 crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport on Wednesday, just after Iran launched its attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq. The crash killed all 176 passengers on board, most of whom were from Iran and Canada. The plane reportedly had no problems at the time of takeoff, and an official told the BBC that “the airplane was heavily fragmented, which means either there was an intense impact on the ground or something happened in the sky.”

An initial report by Iranian investigators said the plane had attempted to return to the airport but that crew had not radioed for assistance. Eyewitnesses reported the plane was on fire before it hit the ground.

Global opinions of Trump. An opinion poll published on Wednesday by  Pew Research opinion poll found that the overwhelming majority of the world has a negative view of U.S. President Donald Trump, though his approval ratings of the United States remain relatively high. Of those surveyed, 64 percent said they had no confidence in the president to do the right thing in world affairs, while only 29 percent said they did. That contrasts sharply with respondents’ opinion of the United States: 54 had a favorable view of the United States, while 38 percent had an unfavorable view.

Some of the lowest levels of confidence were reported in Western Europe, where roughly three quarters of respondents in Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands said they had no confidence in Trump. The U.S. president does have significant support in other parts of the world: His ratings in Israel and the Philippines hover around 75 percent, and a majority in Kenya and India also report confidence in him.

Guaidó forces his way in. Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó and 100 fellow lawmakers forced their way into the country’s legislative building after a tense standoff with police on Tuesday. (Guaidó was previously blocked from entering the building by supporters of President Nicolás Maduro to prevent his reelection as head of the National Assembly.) Guaidó’s leadership role bolstered his claim to the country’s disputed presidency, which is recognized by over 50 other countries, including the United States. Guaidó was reelected head of the legislature in a session held outside the building.

USAID gets new national security advisor. Eddy Acevedo, a veteran U.S. Agency for International Development official and former congressional staffer, has been tapped as the national security advisor to USAID chief Mark Green, the agency announced this week. In his new role, Acevedo will coordinate national security issues with the State Department, the Pentagon, and other U.S. agencies. He will retain his role as USAID’s chief legislative strategist.

FBI gets new counterterrorism head. The FBI announced on Wednesday it appointed Jill Sanborn to head its counterterrorrism division. Sanborn, a career FBI special agent, had previously served stints at the CIA’s counterterrorism center and worked in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Pakistan before being tapped as assistant director of the counterterrorism division.

EU projects linked to forced labor in Eritrea. In an attempt to prevent Mediterranean migration to Europe, the European Union funneled 20 million euros last year to Eritrea, where many asylum seekers in Europe originate. The New York Times reports that the money supported infrastructure projects in the country, but that the labor for those projects was undertaken by forced conscripts—sparking backlash from human rights groups. The EU has no oversight of the projects and does not make the funding conditional on democratic or economic reform.

That’s it for today. For more from FP, subscribe here or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or typos to securitybrief@foreignpolicy.com.

Dan Haverty contributed to this report.