House backs resolution curbing Trump's Iran war powers

The House voted 215 to 208, as four Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the war powers resolution.

The vote is largely symbolic. Any resolution would also have to pass the Senate to become effective, and garner the two-thirds majorities in both chambers to overcome an almost certain Trump veto.

However, it comes after three previous war powers resolutions failed in the House by increasingly slim margins. The Senate advanced a separate, but similar resolution last month in a procedural vote, after seven previous attempts failed.

Meanwhile, Lebanon and Israel agreed to a ceasefire, according to a joint statement with the United States released by the State Department on Wednesday after negotiations in Washington.

Earlier, hostilities in the Persian Gulf flared again as Iranian attacks on Kuwait damaged its airport and injured dozens while the U.S. military carried out strikes near the Strait of Hormuz, with diplomacy to halt the war showing little sign of progress.

The attacks sent oil prices up more than 2% as the strait remains largely closed more than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Flights at Kuwait International Airport were suspended after an Iranian drone and missile attack damaged airport facilities and diplomatic missions, killing one person and injuring more than 60 others, Kuwaiti authorities and state media said.

Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways later resumed flights after taking safety measures, the civil aviation authority said.

Earlier, Iranian media reported that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards attacked the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and a U.S. air base, as well as a vessel identified as Panaya. U.S. Central Command denied its bases were hit and said Iranian ballistic missiles failed to hit their targets.

CENTCOM said it carried out a new round of "defensive strikes" in southern Iran, targeted missile launch sites and Iranian boats seeking to lay mines, and conducted strikes on Qeshm Island near the Strait of Hormuz after attempted Iranian attacks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi later said in a post on social media that his country's armed forces were conducting "self-defense strikes on sites the U.S. is permitted to use to attack civilian shipping and violate the ceasefire."

"Any hostile act will be met with an immediate, decisive response," he added.

Violence flares up 

Since the U.S. and Israel began strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, Tehran repeatedly attacked targets in the Gulf region home to U.S. military bases, hitting civilian and military targets.

Hostilities occasionally flared up in recent weeks despite a ceasefire agreed in early April, as the U.S. has pushed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a route that handled about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments before the war.

Last week, Iran and the U.S. signaled progress toward a tentative initial agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait, but the two sides have yet to sign off on the deal, which would leave more complex negotiations for later.

Mohsen Rezaei, military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said Iran would not allow the U.S. to "overreach" either in negotiations or ceasefire arrangements.

On social media, he warned that any aggression would be met with a barrage of missiles and drones.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, said repeated attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain required a firm and cohesive Gulf response.

"The aggression does not target one country alone, but all of us," he wrote on social media.

Uncertainty

Since mid-March, Trump repeatedly claimed he is close to a deal to end the fighting and pave the way for negotiations on thorny issues including the future of Iran's nuclear program.

Tehran conditioned a deal on an end to fighting in Lebanon. It also wants access to billions of dollars in oil revenues, waivers on sanctions on crude exports, a lifting of a U.S. blockade on its ports and continued leverage over the strait.

Trump, who is under pressure to bring down U.S. fuel prices while not making concessions to Iran, has said his top priority is to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran says its atomic program is for peaceful purposes.

Israeli strikes

The war killed thousands so far, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, while causing global economic pain ⁠by severely disrupting energy supplies and other shipping.

It also sparked the latest round of conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with Israel pursuing its deepest incursion into Lebanon in 25 years.

On Wednesday, Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and targeted a car just south of Beirut, Lebanese security sources said, while Israel said it intercepted a hostile aircraft likely fired by Hezbollah.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to Reuters questions about the drone strikes, but the attack on the car appeared to mark the closest attack to Beirut since Trump asked Israel not to hit the Lebanese capital, under a U.S.-mediated partial ceasefire announced on Monday.

In his podcast comments, Trump acknowledged having called Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" during a reportedly expletive-filled phone exchange over the fighting in Lebanon as he sought a deal over the wider war. 

"At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this. We got to stop it," Trump said, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

In his interview for CNBC, Netanyahu said he and Trump sometimes had "tactical disagreements" but they agreed on the main issues concerning Iran.