WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2019) Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell let the chamber to vote on a bipartisan measure to block the US president from launching a war on Iran without Congress' approval, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday.
"Democrats are urging leader McConnell to allow a vote on an amendment to the NDAA concerning Iran, we're pushing a bipartisan amendment," Schumer told reporters at the US Capitol, in reference to the National Defense Authorization Act, which is due to be put up for a vote in the Senate soon.
The amendment, supported by both Republicans and Democrats, would block the president from using funds authorized in the current NDAA to conduct military action against Iran without the approval of Congress, Schumer said.
Earlier in the day, Trump warned that an Iranian attack on "anything American" would be met with great and overwhelming force.
The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and eight senior commanders of Iran's Navy, Aerospace and Ground Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi said the latest US sanctions against his country's leadership will forever close the path of diplomacy.
The move came after Iran announced last Thursday that it downed a US surveillance drone flying over the coastal Hormozgan province after it violated the Iran's airspace. US Central Command said the drone was shot down while operating over international waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
Following the incident, Trump said he ordered strikes on targets in Iran, but called off the attacks at the last minute because they would be a disproportionate response. Instead, Trump said, he decided to unveil new sanctions.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have escalated since Trump withdraw the United States out of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and began re-imposing sanctions.
