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What’s happening with Iran?
That’s a question many Americans asked this week. It seems like we went from the brink of a major war to a potential peace deal in the Middle East in the blink of an eye. But, did we really?
Congress and the American people need to know.
After Israel launched attacks against Iran earlier this month, seeming to scuttle diplomatic efforts in the region, President Donald Trump said last Thursday that he’d announce a response within two weeks. Days later, his administration announced that the U.S. had bombed nuclear facilities in Iran, and soon after that Iran and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire. Both countries claimed the other violated the ceasefire and Iran fired missiles at a U.S. military base in Qatar, further raising tensions.
Then, the long simmering conflict, which many feared could quickly grow into a much wider war, seemed to be over nearly as quickly as it started.
Trump claimed the June 22 bombing missions had “totally and fully obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. However, an assessment by U.S. intelligence, which was leaked to the press, found minimal damage and concluded that the bombings had only set back Iran’s nuclear operations by “a few months.”
Such conflicting assessments are one reason that Congress needs to reclaim its oversight responsibilities, which a Senate resolution requiring the president to get congressional approval before attacking Iran would have done. The resolution has little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress, especially now that hostilities between Iran and Israel seem to be on hold.
Trump, of course, is not the only president to order military operations without consulting with Congress, which has the constitutional authority to declare war. And some military operations, because they are quick and secret, may need to be launched without a full assessment by Congress.
However, federal lawmakers have, for decades, allowed their oversight of U.S. military operations to be eroded. The murky nature of what really happened in Iran offers Congress the opportunity to reassert its authority, not merely to, as many Republicans have done, pat Trump on the back, but to fully understand what was accomplished in the June 22 bombings.
The Trump administration did give classified briefings to members of the House and Senate this week, which resulted in continued conflicting reports of how badly nuclear facilities were damaged in Iran. It is clear that it will take time to fully assess the damage done by the U.S. bombings. As soon as that assessment is done, the American people need, and deserve, a more transparent explanation of what took place and what it accomplished.
It may turn out that the U.S. bombing was a success, that Iran’s nuclear capabilities were significantly set back and that diplomacy is back on the table in the Middle East. If so, Trump deserves credit. But, there is reason for skepticism.
Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, an international agreement brokered by then-President Barack Obama did halt Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon. Trump ended the agreement during his first term as president and traces of weapons-grade nuclear material were found in 2023 by international monitors at a nuclear facility in Iran.
It is also noteworthy that both Trump and Israeli Leader Benjamin Netanyahu were able to divert negative attention from themselves and their governments with the bombing attacks, raising questions about the motivation for the quick action and reports of success if it didn’t have much impact on Iran.
While he praised the president’s decision to use limited strikes against nuclear facilities in Iran, 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden reiterated the need to brief Congress.
“It is important now that the country learns what information helped inform the president’s decision and the timing of these strikes, and that we learn more about whether we were successful in destroying Iran’s nuclear program,” Golden said in a statement on Monday. “I look forward to Congress receiving a full briefing.”
These are the right questions and the right standard. It is incumbent upon leaders in Congress to reassert their authority and to seek the answers Americans need to understand what happened in Iran and what should happen next.
