WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 (CGTN) -- The U.S. Senate delivered another foreign policy rebuke to President Donald Trump on Thursday, voting 55-45 in favor of a resolution limiting his authority to attack Iran without approval from Congress.
The vote came as the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, said in a live speech to mark the 40th day since the death of top commander Qasem Soleimani that Iran is ready to strike the United States and Israel if they give it any reason to do so.
The war powers measure, a response to Trump's decision to order the airstrike which killed Soleimani in Iraq and threatened to unleash turmoil in the Middle East, is likely to be passed in the House of Representatives.
However, there is not expected to be enough support to muster the two-thirds Senate super majority to override the presidential veto Trump is likely employ. Before the vote, the president warned that passing the resolution would "show weakness" and "sends a very bad signal."
Eight Republicans joined Democrats to pass a resolution that would require Trump to remove U.S. troops engaged in hostilities against Iran unless Congress declares war or passes a specific authorization for the use of military force.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, author of the resolution and Hillary Clinton's running mate in the 2016 election, said the vote reflected the importance of Congress weighing in on any decision to deploy troops.
Even if the Senate cannot override a veto, Kaine said the resolution's backers hoped it would influence Trump when it came to future military action, adding that the president cared about what the public thinks, if not the Senate.
"The bill getting to his desk is an indication that we're listening to our constituents, and we're telling him blundering into another war would be a bad idea," Kaine told a news conference after the vote.
The bill's supporters also noted that they were gaining more support for efforts to take back Congress' authority to declare war.
The Constitution gives that power to Congress, not the president, but presidents from both parties in recent decades have expanded the White House's authority to pursue military action without legislators' input.
In June, another resolution that would have required Trump to get Congress' permission before striking Iran failed in the Senate.
Congress in July failed to override Trump's veto of legislation opposing the president's declaration of an emergency to allow the sale of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, despite lawmakers' objections.
