In a letter to congressional leaders on Friday, the deadline to come to Congress about the war, Trump said there has been no exchange of fire with Iran since the ceasefire

International News via Reuters:

U.S. President Donald Trump declared that a ceasefire had “terminated” hostilities against Iran, as he sought to bolster his argument that he does not need lawmakers’ permission to continue the conflict.

In a letter to congressional leaders on Friday, the deadline to come to Congress about the war, Trump said there has been no exchange of fire with Iran since the ceasefire. “The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” he said.

Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, a U.S. president can wage military action for only 60 days before ending it, asking Congress for authorization or seeking a 30-day extension due to “unavoidable military necessity regarding the safety of United States Armed Forces” while withdrawing forces.

On Friday, Iranian state news agency IRNA said Tehran had sent its latest proposal for negotiations with the U.S. to Pakistani mediators. Trump swiftly rejected it.

The president formally notified Congress of the conflict 48 hours after the first airstrikes two months ago, starting the 60-day clock that ends May 1.

As the date approached, congressional aides and analysts said they expected the Republican president to sidestep the deadline. A senior Trump administration official had said on Thursday the administration’s view was that the war powers law deadline did not apply.

Trump said he considered the war powers law unconstitutional. Both Republican and Democratic presidents have contended the measure violated the Constitution because it sets limits on the president’s powers as commander-in-chief. Legal experts say the matter has not been decided by the courts.

“We had a ceasefire, so that gives you additional time,” Trump said before leaving Washington for Florida.

NO WAY OUT: DEMOCRATIC SENATOR

Congressional Democrats, who have tried repeatedly to pass war powers legislation that would force Trump to end the war or come to Congress for authorization, dismissed that characterization, saying there was nothing in the 1973 law allowing for a ceasefire.

They also said that the continuing deployment of U.S. ships blockading Iranian oil exports was evidence of continuing hostility, not a ceasefire.

“After sixty days of conflict, President Trump still does not have a strategy or way out for this poorly planned war,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement calling the deadline “a clear legal threshold” for Trump to act.

In his letter to Congress, Trump acknowledged that the conflict may not be resolved. He said Iran still poses a “significant” threat to the United States and its armed forces. 

PARTY LOYALTY AS ELECTIONS LOOM

Trump’s fellow Republicans, who hold slim majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives and rarely break from Trump, have voted almost unanimously to block every resolution seeking to end the conflict.

The Iran war has killed thousands, caused billions of dollars in damage and roiled world markets, disrupting energy shipments and boosting a wide range of consumer prices.

Polls show the war is unpopular among Americans, six months before November elections that will determine who controls Congress next year.

The U.S. Constitution says only Congress, not the ⁠president, can ​declare war, but that restriction does not apply to ​short-term operations or to counter an immediate threat.

On Thursday, Trump received a briefing on plans for fresh military strikes to compel Iran to negotiate an end to the conflict.

If fighting resumes, Trump can tell lawmakers he has started a new 60-day clock. Presidents from both parties have repeatedly done so when waging intermittent hostilities since Congress passed the war powers law in response to the Vietnam War.

That conflict, widely unpopular with Americans, was also not authorized by Congress.

Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Don Durfee and Rod Nickel

Trump’s comments indicated the deadlock over the two-month-old war is likely to persist, even as he looks to end a conflict that remains deeply unpopular among Americans

International News via Reuters:

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was not satisfied with the latest Iranian proposal for talks on the Iran war, while Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran was ready for diplomacy if the United States changes its approach.

Trump’s comments indicated the deadlock over the two-month-old war is likely to persist, even as he looks to end a conflict that remains deeply unpopular among Americans.

Though the United States and Iran have suspended hostilities since an April 8 ceasefire, the two countries remain at odds over a range of issues, including Iran’s nuclear ambitions and control over the Strait of Hormuz, and the two sides have yet to agree to a second meeting, following a brief summit of senior officials in Islamabad last month.

It was unclear what the Iranians had submitted in their fresh proposal. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has cautioned against expecting quick results.

“They want to make a deal, but … I’m not satisfied with it,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that the Iranian leadership was “very disjointed” and split into two or three groups.

“They’re asking for things that I can’t agree to,” he said, adding that negotiations by phone were continuing.

Trump has repeatedly said Iran would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. He is also under pressure to break Iran’s hold on the strait, which has choked off 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies. 

Global oil prices, which remain well above $100 a barrel, had eased following news of the Iranian proposal. By Friday afternoon, Brent crude was at $110, down 2%.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his country was ready to pursue diplomacy if the United States changes what he called its “excessive approach, threatening rhetoric and provocative actions.”

However, Araqchi added in a post on his Telegram channel that “Iran’s armed forces remained ready to defend the country against any threat.”

REPORTS ON PLANS FOR NEW STRIKES

Separately, Trump told leaders in Congress that he did not need their permission to extend the war beyond a Friday deadline set by law because the ceasefire had “terminated” hostilities.

“Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal?” Trump said when asked about his options. He added that “on a human basis,” he did not prefer the military course of action.

The war, which began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has led to the deaths of thousands of people. The closure of the strait has increased concerns about the possibility of a wider global economic downturn. 

The U.S. Navy is blockading exports of Iranian crude oil. As of Friday afternoon, 45 commercial vessels had been stopped, according to the U.S. military.

The U.S. Treasury warned that any ‌shipper paying tolls to Iran for passage, including charitable donations to organizations such as the Iranian Red Crescent Society, would be at risk of punitive sanctions.

Reports that Trump was to be briefed on plans for new military strikes to compel Iran to negotiate had pushed oil prices up to a four-year high on Thursday. 

Iran has activated air defences and plans a wide response if attacked, having assessed that there will be a short, intensive U.S. strike, possibly followed by an Israeli attack, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

IRAN SAYS TO BUY DOMESTIC

The conflict has aggravated Iran’s economic plight, but it looks able to survive a standoff for now, despite the U.S. blockade that has curtailed its energy exports.

In a written message, Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei called on businesses damaged in the war to avoid layoffs as much as possible, Iranian news agencies reported.

Khamenei, the son of Iran’s former supreme leader who was killed at the outset of the war, also called for prioritizing the consumption of domestically manufactured goods.

China’s U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said it was an urgent necessity to maintain the ceasefire and that the strait needed to be reopened as quickly as possible. 

He said he was sure the strait would be high on the agenda in talks between China’s leader Xi Jinping and Trump if it is still closed when Trump travels to Beijing this month.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Timothy Heritage, Aidan Lewis and Michael Martina; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Gareth Jones, Hugh Lawson, Will Dunham, Rod Nickel