US-Iran War 2026: House Votes to Limit Trump War Powers as Iran Attacks Kuwait Airport and Gulf Ceasefire Collapse Triggers New Global Crisis
June 9, 2026 | US Foreign Policy & Conflict | By USA News Reporters Washington-Gulf Bureau
The United States Congress took an extraordinary step on June 3, 2026, when the House of Representatives passed a concurrent resolution invoking war powers authority to limit President Donald Trump’s ability to conduct further military operations against Iran. The measure passed with bipartisan support after a growing number of Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in expressing alarm about the pace, scope, and legal authority underlying the administration’s military campaign in the Gulf.
The vote came on the same day that Iran launched its deadliest new round of attacks in weeks, striking Kuwait International Airport with drones and missiles that killed one person and injured 63 others, and targeting US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. The near-simultaneous occurrence of a congressional rebuke and an Iranian escalation encapsulated the political and military paralysis that has gripped Washington’s Gulf strategy for months.
The conflict began escalating sharply in late February 2026 when the United States and Israel conducted coordinated strikes on Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure. Iran responded with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf region, hitting the UAE, Kuwait, and US bases in multiple countries. The Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil shipping lane, was effectively closed to normal commercial traffic for weeks, triggering an energy shock the World Bank classified as the worst in history.
A fragile ceasefire announced in April bought weeks of relative quiet, but peace talks between the US and Iran stalled over Iran’s demands for sanctions relief and security guarantees that Washington was unwilling to provide. The Trump administration, meanwhile, continued what it described as targeted enforcement operations, including the Hellfire missile strike on a Botswana-flagged oil tanker heading toward Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal, which Iran cited as the immediate justification for the June 3 airport attack on Kuwait.
The concurrent resolution passed by the House must now clear the Senate, where its prospects are less certain. Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, a concurrent resolution passed by both chambers can require the president to halt unauthorized military operations within 30 days. The Trump administration has argued that its actions fall within existing congressional authorizations for the use of military force, a legal argument that constitutional scholars are fiercely contesting.
President Trump, for his part, announced this week that he plans to attend the G7 summit in France later in June, describing it as an important diplomatic engagement while framing it casually in a Truth Social post. His participation in the G7 is under close international scrutiny given ongoing tensions between the US and several allied governments, including France and Germany, over both the Iran conflict and trade disputes stemming from the administration’s tariff policies.
Russia added another complicating dimension to the global security picture this week. Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal near St. Petersburg just days before Putin’s showcase St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and Putin used the forum to announce plans to reinforce Russian air defense systems. He briefed international news agency representatives at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg, projecting a message of defiance and resilience even as Ukrainian strikes reach deeper into Russian territory than at any previous point in the war.
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For US military planners, the challenge of simultaneously managing the Gulf conflict, supporting European allies against Russia, and sustaining global deterrence postures is stretching resources and political capital. The Pentagon has acknowledged the extraordinary operational tempo and has called for accelerated production of interceptor missiles, drone defense systems, and precision munitions depleted by the Gulf campaign.
The coming weeks will determine whether the US and Iran can return to any form of negotiated restraint, or whether the cycle of strikes and counter-strikes will deepen into a prolonged conflict with consequences no government has fully modeled. Diplomats from Oman and the EU are pressing for emergency back-channel talks. The G7 summit in France may provide Trump with a multilateral forum to signal a shift in strategy, if he chooses to use it that way. The world is watching a conflict that has already reshaped energy markets, regional politics, and the limits of American war powers, and the next move could redefine any of them again.
