US Senate Votes to Halt Iran War, Defying Trump

The US Senate passed a War Powers Resolution on Tuesday by a 50-48 vote, directing President Donald Trump to cease military operations against Iran. The vote marks a stunning bipartisan turnaround — it is reportedly the 10th Senate attempt to stop the war, but the first to succeed — and reflects deepening congressional discomfort with the conflict as diplomatic negotiations proceed in parallel. The resolution had previously cleared the House of Representatives.

The vote comes as Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the UAE at the start of a Gulf tour aimed at advancing the US-Iran peace framework with regional partners. Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, separately arrived in Pakistan for talks, where he said Iran's ballistic missile program was never on the table in US negotiations and that without its missiles Iran would have ended up "razed like Gaza." Pakistan confirmed that missile negotiations were not part of the discussions.

More than 11,000 sailors remain stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, and the UN's International Maritime Organization announced it would evacuate them. The Senate vote does not automatically end hostilities — Trump can veto the resolution — but it signals a significant political constraint on the administration's military posture and could shape the trajectory of ongoing diplomatic talks.

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