US Senate protects Trump’s war powers as Iran launches volley of missiles at Israel

Men watch from a hillside as a plume of smoke rises after an explosion in Tehran, Iran.

• Iran launched missiles at Israel.
• Republicans voted against a motion aimed ‌at requiring that military action be authorised by Congress.
• An Iranian ballistic missile was fired toward Turkey.

Iran launched a wave of missiles at Israel early on Thursday, sending millions of residents into bomb shelters as the US-Israel war with Iran entered its sixth day and just hours after moves to halt the US air assault were blocked in Washington.

Republican senators in Washington voted against a motion aimed ‌at stopping the air campaign and requiring that military action be authorised by Congress, leaving US President Donald Trump’s power to direct the war largely unbound, as the conflict continues to widen across the Middle East and beyond.

The US Senate voted 53 to 47 not to advance the resolution, largely along party lines, with all but one Republican voting against the procedural motion and all but one Democrat supporting it.

The US-Iran war has widened sharply, with a US submarine sinking an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing at least 80 people, and NATO air defences destroying an Iranian ballistic missile fired toward Turkey.

READ | Oman insists: ‘There are off-ramps available’ in war, rejects Iran ‘imminent threat’ idea

The escalation came as the powerful son of Iran’s slain supreme leader emerged as a frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran ⁠was not about to buckle to pressure from the US and Israel’s military campaign that has killed hundreds and convulsed global markets.

The missile incident is the first time that Turkey – which borders Iran and has NATO’s second-largest military – has been drawn into the conflict, but US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said there was no sense that it would trigger the Atlantic alliance’s collective-defence clause.

AFP reported that Iran said on Thursday it had targeted headquarters of the Kurdish forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, according to Iranian state media, following strikes on Kurdish regions in both Iran and Iraq.

“We targeted the headquarters of Kurdish groups opposed to the revolution in Iraqi Kurdistan with three missiles,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency posted on Telegram, quoting a military statement.

Iranian news agency Tasnim reported on Thursday that several explosions were heard in Tehran and that Iran had activated its defences.

The blasts came after Iran launched several rounds of missiles at Israel early on Thursday.

The war continued to paralyse shipping through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, choking off vital Middle East oil and gas flows.

A man holds pictures of Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran while another man holds a photo of the Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US President Donald Trump as people wave Iranian pre-1979 Islamic Revolution in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles, California.

Trump has pledged to provide insurance and naval escorts for ships to contain soaring costs, with oil prices rising on Thursday.

At least 200 vessels remain anchored off the coast, according to Reuters estimates.

The US Navy will escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “as soon as it can”, but is focused on the conflict for now, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Fox News on Wednesday.

“No, not yet … We’ll do that as soon as we can. Right now, our navy, and of course, our military, is focused on other things, which is disarming this Iranian regime,” Wright said, when asked if any commercial vessels had requested US Navy assistance in ‌the Gulf.

Asian ⁠shares rallied on Thursday after days of sharp losses, while US stocks closed up on Wednesday on hopes that the war might end soon.

Some traders said the improved sentiment followed a New York Times report that Iranian intelligence had reached out to the CIA early in the war about a path toward ending it.

A source from the Iranian intelligence ministry rejected the article as “absolute lies and psychological warfare in the midst of war”, Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim reported.

Repatriation flights departed the Middle East on Wednesday as governments rushed to bring home tens of thousands of citizens stranded by the war.

Commercial air traffic remained largely absent across much of ⁠the region, with major Gulf hubs including Dubai, the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, affected.

Plans were in doubt for a funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday in the first assassination of a nation’s top ruler by an airstrike.

The body had been expected to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening, but Iran announced that three days of farewell ceremonies had ⁠been indefinitely postponed, and no funeral date had been announced.

A missile launched from Iran is pictured in the sky from the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip.

Two Iranian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, was not in Tehran when his father was killed.

Iran said the Assembly of Experts would select the new leader and announce its decision soon, only the second time it has done so since the Islamic Republic’s founding ⁠in 1979.

Assembly member Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told state TV the candidates had already been identified, but did not name them.

Israel said it would hunt down whoever was chosen.

Other candidates for supreme leader include Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic Republic’s founder and a champion of the reformist faction sidelined in recent decades.