More Stories
Top Senate Democrats on Wednesday accused US President Donald Trump of risking war with Iran without legal authority, hours after Trump said the Islamic Republic’s downfall was possible and suggested he might bomb key nuclear sites.
“I want total and complete victory,” Trump said in Washington, dismissing any notion of a ceasefire and suggesting Iran had asked for talks. “They should have negotiated sooner.”
The president said Iranian officials had even proposed a visit to the White House, a remark later denied by Iran’s UN mission in New York.
The statements came as ABC News reported that Trump was increasingly open to a military strike on Iran’s underground Fordow nuclear site, citing a source familiar with current intelligence.
Democratic senators call for legal authority
Five senior Senate Democrats issued a joint statement criticizing what they called the administration’s “lack of preparation, strategy, and clearly defined objectives” on Iran.
“The United States cannot sleepwalk into a third war in as many decades,” the senators wrote, warning Trump against bypassing congressional approval.
“By law, the president must consult Congress and seek authorization if he is considering taking the country to war," they said.
“He owes Congress and the American people a strategy for US engagement in the region.”
The signatories included Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Chris Coons, Mark Warner, Jack Reed, and Patty Murray.
Iran vows response if provoked
Iran’s UN ambassador in Geneva warned that any trace of US involvement in Israeli attacks would trigger retaliation.
Mojtaba Ranjbar, a Iranian cleric, said, “If the United States targets the Supreme Leader, Iran will strike Washington and New York.”
Trump described Iran as “totally defenseless,” intensifying speculation over imminent military action.
With threats traded and authorizations absent, the risk of open conflict is rising as Washington and Tehran continue to exchange warnings without resolution.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it successfully carried out a 14th wave of combined missile attacks targeting strategic sites in Israel, state media reported on Thursday.
The IRGC described the strikes as part of a broader operation against what it called “Zionist enemy targets in the occupied territories.”
Iranian missiles targeted Soroka hospital in Beersheba and civilian areas in central Israel on Thursday morning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“We will make the tyrants in Tehran pay the full price,” Netanyahu posted on X.
Two people were seriously injured and at least 30 others suffered mild blast and shrapnel wounds in the latest missile attacks, Magen David Adom said on Thursday.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that 40 fighter jets carried out overnight airstrikes on dozens of military targets across Iran, using more than 100 munitions in a wide-ranging campaign aimed at damaging Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Among the sites struck was a non-operational nuclear reactor near Arak, where a core structure used in plutonium production was targeted. The IDF said the component was essential for weapons-grade plutonium and that the strike was intended to prevent it from being repurposed for nuclear arms development.
Fighter jets also hit facilities near Natanz used for nuclear weapons research and development, according to the IDF. Additional strikes targeted missile production plants, air defense system factories, radar sites, and missile storage facilities.
