ANALYSIS — Even if a recent flareup of military skirmishes in the Middle East merely continues but does not escalate, the clashes cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s formal assertion to Congress on May 1 that hostilities between American and Iran have “terminated.”
The renewed fighting has put intense strain on a tenuous ceasefire in the wider war. In Washington, the surge in combat solidifies a sense that the war’s economic shock waves and electoral risks will not soon subside.
On May 3, Trump announced the launch of what he called a project, “Project Freedom,” not an operation, such as “Operation Epic Fury,” the name for the broader war with Iran. In a May 1 letter to Congress, Trump cited the ongoing ceasefire with Iran as evidence that the conflict had been “terminated,” and the 60-day deadline for either official congressional approval or withdrawal of U.S. troops under the War Powers Resolution no longer applied.
