Pivotal US-Iran war deadline approaches with no end in sight for conflict

US President Donald Trump faces a deadline on Friday to end the Iran war or make the case to Congress for extending it, but the date is most likely to pass without altering the course of a conflict that has lapsed into a standoff over shipping routes. Instead, analysts and congressional aides said they expect Trump to notify Congress that he plans a 30-day extension or disregard the deadline, with his administration arguing that a current ceasefire with Tehran marked an end to the conflict. Like most policies in a bitterly divided Congress, war powers have become deeply partisan, with opposition Democrats calling for Congress to reassert its constitutional right to declare war and Republicans accusing Democrats of trying to use War Powers law to weaken Trump. Democrats have tried repeatedly since the war began on February 28 to pass resolutions to force Trump to withdraw US forces or obtain congressional authorisation. But Trump’s Republicans, who hold slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, have voted them down almost unanimously. Republicans blocked a sixth such effort in the Senate on Thursday, a day before the war powers deadline, although Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has voted against ⁠previous resolutions, became the second member of her party to back the measure, along with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has backed all of the resolutions. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, the president can wage military action for only 60 days be