President Donald Trump’s Republicans have insisted that the attack on Iran was fully within his authority as commander-in-chief.

Democrats said the administration had not made ‌its case and are planning a war powers vote in the U.S. Congress this week.

Secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of defence Pete Hegseth, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefed congressional leaders on Monday about the strikes on Iran, two days after Israeli and U.S. forces began bombing Iran.

Democrats argued that the U.S. Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the sole right to declare war and that Mr Trump should not have embarked on what he said could be a weeks-long campaign without lawmakers’ approval.

They also faulted the Trump administration for failing to present a consistent argument for attacking Iran now, and questioned whether U.S. interests were ‌dictating policy.

(Reuters/NAN)