WASHINGTON: Demo-crats bristled Sunday over US President Donald Trump’s decision to launch air strikes on Iran without seeking authorization from Congress, accusing the Republican of violating the constitution and demanding a vote to rein in his war powers.

Members of the Senate and House of Representatives argued that US intelligence had not shown an imminent threat from the Middle Eastern country that justified Trump’s unilateral action.

“President Trump’s actions in bombing Iran puts the US on the brink of a wider war in the Middle East, all without constitutionally required Congressional approval,” Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said in a statement.

Democrats were divided between those demanding a vote on a war powers resolution to constrain Trump’s authority to launch further action and a smaller group, who maintained that the strikes were grounds for the Republican leader’s impeachment.

They included Illinois moderate Sean Casten and New York leftist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who accused the president of having “impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations.” Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leaders in the Senate and House respectively, said Trump had “dramatically increased” America’s risk of becoming embroiled in a new Middle Eastern conflagration.—AFP