Will the US Senate do what was once considered to be unlikely and endorse a war resolution passed by the US House of Representatives that would curtail President Donald Trump's ability to wage his war with Iran?
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford, who voted against a similar resolution in the US Senate back in March, didn't seem to think that the measure passed by the House of Representatives was dead on arrival in the US Senate this time around.
"It's hard to tell at this point," he said during an appearance on Fox News Sunday during which he was asked about the potential for a forthcoming vote that might limit US President Trump's ability to continue the conflict in Iran. "It was a tie vote in the Senate last time and we'll have to see where it goes this time," he said.
During the last vote on a similar measure back in March, US Vice President JD Vance broke the tie vote, leading to the resolution's defeat.
Just last week, however, in what was widely seen as a rebuke to President Trump, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives voted to back a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the Iran war until hostilities are authorised by Congress.
The passing of the resolution reflected growing congressional concern, even among President Donald Trump’s Republicans, over the war.
The House voted 215 to 208, with four Republicans voting with Democrats in favour of the war powers resolution. On Friday, just one day after the vote, Mr Trump sought to blunt the broader symbolic impact of the resolution.
"In a meaningless vote, the House voted … to limit my war powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the war with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he posted to his social media platform Truth Social.
Mr Trump accused the Democrats and four Republicans who backed the measure of undermining the overall US negotiating position in talks with Iran. “Who would do such an unpatriotic thing?” he added. “They know where the negotiations stand.”
He dismissed Republican supporters of the measure as “grandstanders” and accused Democrats of trying to deny him another foreign policy victory.
Though the Republicans only hold a slim majority in the US Senate, if the war powers resolution were to pass, it would be seen as a significant public rebuke to Mr Trump's decision to attack Iran at the end of February.
It would also further the narrative that Mr Trump, who has largely been able to exert his influence on Republican officials, is losing his ability to do so, with public polling indicating increasing scepticism about the wisdom of the conflict with Iran.
According to a recent poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov, approximately 68 per cent of those surveyed indicated that they felt the US “should make a deal to end the war in Iran as quickly as possible".
Eleven per cent disagreed with that statement, while 21 per cent were unsure. It's one of several polls showing Mr Trump facing an uphill battle as he tries to influence public opinion on his decision to attack Iran. Sunday marked 100 days since the US and Israel started the conflict.
