WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2020) A new US House resolution is unlikely to prevent President Donald Trump from attacking Iran because the administration can exploit a clause in the act regarding imminent threats, war crimes lawyer Francis Boyle told Sputnik.
On Thursday, the Democratic Party-controlled House - by a vote of 224-194 - passed a war powers resolution designed to limit the president's ability to take military action against Iran in the wake of the assassination of Quds force commander Qasem Soleimani. However, although the concurrent resolution does not require the president's signature, the measure is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate.
"The resolution includes the phrase 'an imminent armed attack' [as an exception]," Boyle, who is also professor of international law at the University of Illinois, said. "It is not even worth the paper it is written on."
The imminent threat exception clause, he added, undermines any idea that the measure is "seriously intended to restrain the ability of this or any other president to wage war and unleash armed force whenever he decides to do so."
The resolution, Boyle said, reflects the background and origins of its Primary author, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, who is a former CIA analyst.
"This clearly indicates the eventual use that Slotkin and her colleagues foresaw in advance for the resolution," he said.
As the House voted on the measure last night, pro-peace activists gathered in the center of Washington urging American leaders to de-escalate the conflict with Iran and choose diplomacy over war.
Congress passed the original war powers resolution in 1973 in response to US military actions in the Vietnam War.
Boyle has advised many international bodies on human rights, war crimes, and nuclear policy and has helped prosecute cases before the International Criminal Court.
