A day after President Trump shelved a planned Iran strike at Gulf allies' request, the Senate advanced a war powers resolution 50-47 on Tuesday, cracking open the first bipartisan crack in congressional support for Operation Epic Fury — just as Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned it would carry the fight to targets outside the Middle East if hostilities resumed.
The vote does not end the war and faces long odds of becoming law: it would still need to pass a Senate final vote, clear the House and survive an expected presidential veto. But for Democrats who have fallen short seven times since February, Tuesday marked the first time they secured 50 votes — and the first time Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana crossed the aisle on the measure.
What shifted
Cassidy's defection was the decisive change. The Louisiana Republican lost his primary last week to a Trump-backed challenger and is now serving the final months of his term. In a statement posted to his X account after the vote, Cassidy wrote that "the White House and Pentagon have left Congress in the dark on Operation Epic Fury" and that "Until the administration provides clarity, no congressional authorization or extension can be justified."
Three other Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky — also voted to advance the resolution. Three Republicans, Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, did not vote, their absences tipping the balance. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the lone Democrat to vote against.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the result a breakthrough. "Vote by vote, Democrats are breaking through Republicans' wall of silence on Trump's illegal war," Schumer said. "Today proved our pressure is working: Republicans are starting to crack, and momentum is building to check him."
Iran's warning
The Senate vote landed on the same morning Iran's Revolutionary Guard issued its most expansive threat of the 82-day war. In a statement reported by Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency, the IRGC said "the regional war that was promised will this time be extended beyond the region, and our crushing blows will bring you to ruin in places you cannot imagine."
Trump had set an informal deadline of two or three days — or perhaps until Sunday or early next week — for Iran to come to the negotiating table, saying he was "an hour away" from ordering new strikes Monday night before Gulf allies intervened.
The counterpoint
The administration pushed back on the picture of an open-ended conflict. Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that both sides have made a "lot of progress" in talks and that neither Washington nor Tehran wanted the military campaign to restart. "This is not a forever war. We're going to take care of business and come home," Vance told reporters. Trump told lawmakers the U.S. would end the conflict "very quickly," citing Iran's eagerness to reach a deal. Today's dossier draws on center and lean-left sources; the Republican defense of the administration's strategy rests primarily on those White House statements rather than independent reporting.
Pakistan's interior minister arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a second visit in under a week, part of what a senior Pakistani diplomat described as intensified efforts to broker a peace deal. Whether that diplomacy can produce an agreement before Trump's self-imposed deadline expires remains the central question of a war that has now outlasted his initial four-to-six-week timeline by nearly two months.