3 more Republicans back Iran war powers resolution; new report details brutal regime crackdown
Three more House Republicans joined Democrats in backing a resolution aimed at reining in President Donald Trump’s war powers during Operation Epic Fury. A new report from Amnesty International alleges the regime in Tehran committed “crimes against humanity” in a crackdown against protesters.
Vance outlines ‘second phase’ of Iran war as conflict approaches major shift
Vice President JD Vance said the Iran war will enter a “much different phase” in the coming months during an interview with the New York Post aboard Air Force Two on Monday.
“We can’t predict the future, but I think the president is right to say that this thing will enter a much different phase in a couple of months,” Vance told the outlet.
“He’s also the commander in chief, so he’s the person who determines … when conflicts start and when they stop,” he said of President Donald Trump.
“I certainly understand there’s some impatience from the American people, but fundamentally what’s happening right now is that the United States is not engaged in aggressive operations. We’re just not,” Vance said.
Vance said what is happening is that the Iranians are occasionally shooting at commercial shipping, “usually not successfully.”
“The first phase was destroy the nuclear program, destroy their conventional military, destroy their ability to project power in a way that they were able to even a couple of years ago,” Vance said.
“And then the second phase of this is ensure that they’re not able to rebuild and try to maintain as much global stability in the wake of that,” he said.
Yesterday's Fox News Digital live blog offers additional coverage of the conflict with Iran.
China wants US, Iran to reopen Strait of Hormuz ‘at an early date’: report
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday that the U.S. and Iran should “take effective measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz at an early date,” a report said.
The Iranian regime and the Trump administration also should "rebuild the negotiation mechanism based on the consensus reached so far," Wang told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during a meeting in Beijing, according to Reuters.
Wang reportedly added that China "does not want to see regional tensions to spill over further into Yemen and the Red Sea."
The remarks come as Iran-backed Houthi rebels are targeting Saudi infrastructure.
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet in Washington next week.
Iranian regime committed ‘crimes against humanity’ during protest crackdown, report says
A new report from Amnesty International warned Wednesday that “those responsible for crimes against humanity committed to brutally crush nationwide protests in 2022 continue to control Iran’s deadly state machinery of repression today.”
“The report, Architects of Atrocities: State Machinery Orchestrating Crimes Against Humanity in Iran’s 2022 Woman Life Freedom Uprising –more than 1,000 pages long – details how Iranian authorities committed the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, enforced disappearance, imprisonment, rape and persecution on political, gender, ethnic and religious grounds in order to crush the uprising,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “It also documents deadly protest repression operations and command structures, identifying 87 officials who should be criminally investigated for crimes against humanity.”
Protests erupted in Iran following the Sept. 16, 2022, death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained three days earlier by Iran’s morality police over what authorities described as "improper hijab."
Her death sparked nationwide demonstrations that became known internationally as the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. The U.N. said reports that Amini had been beaten in custody warranted an independent investigation, while Iranian authorities maintained that she died of "natural causes."
Amnesty International said Wednesday that it is “calling for an international criminal justice mechanism to be established urgently by the U.N. General Assembly to ensure Iranian authorities responsible for crimes against humanity are held to account and to deter further atrocities such as the large-scale protest massacres committed on January 8-9, 2026.”
The organization said in 2022, agents from the Police Command of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps “repeatedly fired into crowds, using military-grade assault rifles, handguns and shotguns loaded with metal pellets.”
“In addition to firing into crowds, they chased fleeing protesters and bystanders, closing in on unarmed victims who posed no threat to the security forces or others and fatally shooting them at close range,” it added.
Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter contributed to this post.
7 Republicans rebel against Trump, vote with Dems to rein in Iran war powers
A handful of House Republicans rebuked President Donald Trump's operation in Iran on Tuesday, joining Democrats to pass a resolution aimed at reining in the commander-in-chief's war powers.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the war powers resolution that was backed by 14 of his fellow House Democrats, including Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo, and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. But it was Republicans who helped put the legislation over the edge.
Seven House Republicans joined all 213 voting Democrats to pass the measure in a 220 to 204 vote late on Tuesday night. Opponents of the bill were 203 House Republicans and Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., who caucuses with the GOP.
Republicans who voted to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran have long argued that it's on Congress to declare war, not the White House. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 generally allows a president to engage U.S. forces in hostilities for up to 60 days without congressional authorization, with an additional 30-day withdrawal period under certain circumstances. Supporters of the resolution argue that period has already expired.
The Trump administration has argued the president is acting within his constitutional authority as commander in chief and has defended the continued military operation against Iran, saying the resolution would improperly restrict the president's ability to protect U.S. forces and national security interests.
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