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CNN’s Madison Park, Eric Bradner, Clare Foran, Donald Judd, Alex Rogers and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.

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The House of Representatives easily passed the proposal by voice vote held on the heels of fellow …

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HON. MORGAN ORTEGAS

OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON

“I think the Iranian [people] love America. I think they’d love to be free…They love what we stand for…if they need help with respect to the virus, we have the greatest medical professionals in the world. We’d love to send them over.”

-President Trump, Remarks to the Press April 2, 2020

• Iran’s slick foreign influence campaign to obtain sanctions relief is not intended for the relief or health of the Iranian people but to raise funds for its terror operations.

• Since 2012, the regime has spent over $16 billion to fund its terror proxies abroad while Iranian healthcare services have remained woefully underfunded. This led the Iranian Health Minister to resign in January 2019 in protest of repeated health budget cuts.

• U.S. sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran. The United States maintains broad authorizations that allow for the sale of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices by U.S persons or from the United States to Iran.

• On April 1, 2020, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the U.S. sanctions “have failed to hamper our efforts to fight against the coronavirus.” Iranian documents show their healthcare companies have been able to import testing kits since January.

• Iran refused the United States’ offer of humanitarian assistance and medical supplies to the Iranian people to help address the coronavirus outbreak. On March 23, the Iranian Ministry of Health kicked out a Doctors Without Borders team, which was setting up a treatment facility in Esfahan. However, the regime is still calling for sanctions relief. Clearly, their priority is access to cash, not medicine.

• In late March, President Rouhani inadvertently revealed this during a government cabinet meeting when he applauded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their “concerted effort to influence public opinion and say ‘no’ to sanctions.” He described that “our efforts are aimed at bringing back our money seized in other countries.”

• The Iranian government created a website in early March to coordinate Iranian government propaganda about coronavirus and efforts to end U.S. sanctions. Multiple Iranian diplomatic missions amplified this site’s content encouraging foreign publics to defy U.S. sanctions.

• Iran also possesses sufficient funds on hand to fight against the coronavirus outbreak. Iran controls hundreds of billions of dollars in its National Development Fund as well as Supreme Leader Khamenei’s many hedge funds flush with assets originally confiscated from the Iranian people. These funds can be used for government spending.

• In 2018, Iran withdrew an estimated $2.5 billion from its National Development Fund for increased defense spending. In 2019, Iran withdrew $1.5 billion from the fund for other military expenses.

• On March 9, 2020, five Iranian parliamentarians requested that the government transfer assets from these funds for the coronavirus response, and on March 26, President Rouhani requested that Khamenei approve a one-billion-dollar transfer from the National Defense Fund.

• While sitting on the request for coronavirus relief, Iran reportedly transferred $400 million from the fund to pay for government salaries. Khamenei also found the time to intervene in the parliamentary budget process and on March 19 increased funding for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) by 33% over Rouhani’s original budget request.

• Khamenei also more than doubled the funding for the Basij, the regime’s brute squad responsible for killing around 1,500 Iranians in the November 2019 protests.

• For years, the Iranian regime has prioritized its proxies over the Iranian people and stolen money the Iranian people deserve and expect to go towards their healthcare. In July 2019, 1 billion Euros intended for medical supplies “disappeared” and another $170 million dollars allocated for medical goods were instead spent by the regime on tobacco.

• In 2018, an Iranian “humanitarian” company was sanctioned by the United States for masking payments that provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Hizballah and Hamas through the IRGC’s Qods Force.

• After decades of experience, the Iranian people are the first to reject the regime’s excuses. New graffiti in a Tehran suburb reads “The Islamic Republic in Iran is the real coronavirus.” After Khamenei accused the United States of using coronavirus as a biological weapon, the most prominent hashtags used in Iran were #KhameneiVirus and #IslamicRepublicVirus.

• The United States will continue to support the needs and aspirations of the Iranian people, who are the longest suffering victims of the Iranian regime.

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The war powers measure S.J. Res. 68 (116), passed 227 to 186, next heads to Trump’s desk. The resolution amounts to a legal slap on the wrist for Trump, who is certain to veto the resolution.

The Senate passed the measure, sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), in February. But neither chamber has passed the measure with nearly enough votes to overcome a veto.

The resolution calls for end to military hostilities against Islamic Republic without congressional authorization.

Democrats — and a handful of Republicans wary of expansive presidential powers — have been seeking to restrict Trump’s aims on Iran since last year.

Those efforts gained steam in January after Trump ordered the killing of Islamic Republic Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani  listed on the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) — which the administration argued came in response to an imminent threat — and a retaliatory missile attack by Iran against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq.

Since then, the House has passed its own war powers resolution, which the Senate did not take up. House Democrats also pushed through legislation from progressive California Reps. Ro Khanna and Barbara Lee, respectively, to block funding for offensive military operations against Iran that aren’t authorized by Congress and repeal the 2002 Iraq war authorization the administration employed to justify killing Soleimani.

Democrats have panned the Trump administration’s legal and tactical explanations for the strike in the intervening months. House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel(D-N.Y.) argued the legislation was still needed even though “tensions have ratcheted down” between the U.S. and Islamic Republic Out law Regime.

“The drafters of the War Powers Resolution accounted for the situation we are in today,” Engel said on the House floor. “They were clear that Congress’ powers are not as narrow as the administration would like us to believe, and apparently as some members of this body would like us to believe.

“The American people don’t want war with Iran. Congress has not authorized war with Iran,” he added. “That should be crystal clear.”

But only six Republicans broke ranks to support the measure, well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto. Only eight Senate Republicans supported the measure last month, passing the chamber with below the threshold to overturn a veto.

The vote comes amid reports that three people, including two U.S. troops, were killed in a rocket attack at Iraq’s Camp Taji , just north of Baghdad. Army Col. Myles Caggins, a spokesperson for the U.S. mission against ISIS, said on twitter that the base was hit with “more than 15 small rockets.” but provided no additional details on the attack.

House Republicans, meanwhile, contended Trump had exercised restraint against Islamic Republic Out law Regime and called the resolution a partisan exercise.

“In my judgment, we are wasting precious legislative days and setting a terrible precedent of abusing war powers procedures,” said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the top Foreign Affairs Republican.

The measure was  hailed by advocacy groups aiming to restrain executive war powers and limit future overseas wars.

“The United States should always retain the capability to protect itself from threats, and it is important to note this measure does not prohibit the president from defending our country and our fellow Americans should they be threatened,” said Nate Anderson, executive director of Concerned Veterans of America, a conservative veterans’ group backed by the Koch family. “Rather, this is a positive step toward a better foreign policy that will better position America to prioritize American safety, engage productively in the world, and prevent endless wars with no clear mission or end goal.”

Defense policy legislation approved last year by the House included a provision, authored by Khanna and Trump ally Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), that would have required congressional authorization before taking military action against Iran. The provision was dropped from a compromise defense bill after opposition from the Republican Senate and the White House.

Progressive lawmakers are nonetheless predicting Iran will reemerge as a top issue when the House takes up its version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act this spring.

The White House has threatened to veto the measure, saying it “fails to account for present reality.” Ahead of last month’s Senate vote on the resolution, Trump also urged senators to vote against by arguing it would “show weakness.”

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“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

The announcement comes hours after President Trump held a phone call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two reportedly discussed the conflict and agreed to a meeting in Washington in November.

More than 1,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed in northeastern Syria, where they work closely with Kurdish fighters who have proven to be among Washington’s strongest allies in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Erdogan has repeatedly expressed frustration with Washington’s close alliance with the Kurds along his country’s border with Syria, linking them to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization in Turkey.

The U.S., in an effort to reduce tensions in the region, has been working on establishing a safe zone along the border. But the plans have faltered, and the Turkish president in recent days has warned that Ankara will soon be launching a military operation across the border, as soon as within the next couple of days.

Grisham in her Sunday statement added the U.S. will not be holding any more ISIS fighters, and that “Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years in the wake of the defeat of the territorial ‘Caliphate’ by the United States.”

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