Iran still has “considerable” abilities to threaten American forces and other interests in the Middle East despite Israeli and U.S. bombardment in recent days, the admiral nominated to lead U.S. forces in the region told lawmakers Tuesday.
“At the tactical level, I think they’ve been degraded. I think the degree to which that degradation has taken place, particularly in the last 12 days, is best discussed in a classified forum,” Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who currently serves as deputy commander of U.S. Central Command and has been nominated to become its commander, said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Pressed later in the hearing on whether Iran can still threaten U.S. troops in the region, Cooper said “they possess considerable tactical capability, one element of which we saw yesterday, which we thwarted in defense of Al Udeid.”
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“We’ve got to be in a three-point stance, ready to go, every single day,” Cooper said.
Cooper was testifying at his confirmation hearing to lead Central Command as U.S.-Iran tensions simmered after President Donald Trump ordered the American military to strike three Iranian nuclear facilities in support of an Israeli military operation against the Islamic Republic.
In response to the U.S. strikes, Iran on Monday fired missiles at one of the largest U.S. military bases in the region, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Trump and other officials have said missiles were successfully intercepted and that there have been no reports of American casualties or damage to the base.
After the Iranian strike, Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, though the truce appeared to be tenuous Tuesday morning.
The House and Senate had been scheduled to receive separate all-members classified briefings about Iran on Tuesday, but the briefings were postponed, leaving the hearing with Cooper one of the only opportunities for lawmakers to immediately press an official on the situation.
Trump’s decision to greenlight U.S. participation in Israel’s war against Iran sparked fears of pulling the United States into yet another intractable conflict in the Middle East, as well as concerns about the safety of the 40,000 U.S. troops based across the region.
Though the fighting between Iran and Israel has subsided for now, U.S. lawmakers are still debating what role Congress, which has ceded its war authorities considerably over the last 20-plus years, could or should play in military operations against Iran.
The Senate is expected to vote later this week on a resolution introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., that would prevent U.S. military action against Iran unless specifically authorized by Congress.
Kaine, a member of the Armed Services Committee, took the opportunity of Cooper’s confirmation hearing to press the case for his resolution.
“I am very disturbed with the U.S. getting in an offensive war with Iran, and I’m praying, and I know we all are, that the ceasefire is going to hold,” Kaine said. “I think there are differences of opinion in this body as there would be in the American public about the virtues of offensive war between the United States and Iran, and I understand those differences. But I hope my colleagues will agree that something of this magnitude should not be the decision of one person.”
Kaine’s resolution relies on the 1973 War Powers Act, passed in the wake of the Vietnam War to reassert Congress’ authority to declare war. Two war powers resolutions have also been introduced in the House, one by a bipartisan pair of congressmen and another by a trio of top Democrats.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., suggested Tuesday that he does not think Congress needs to weigh in on the issue.
“Many respected constitutional experts argue that the War Powers Act is itself unconstitutional,” Johnson said at a news conference Tuesday. “I’m persuaded by that argument. They think it’s a violation of the Article 2 powers of the commander in chief. I think that’s right.”
During Cooper’s hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., pressed him on whether there were discussions about seeking congressional authorization prior to the U.S. strikes on Iran, but Cooper declined to comment on what he characterized as a policy decision.
For his part, Cooper told lawmakers his priority if confirmed as Central Command chief will be ensuring the safety of U.S. troops in the region.
“For sure, the thing I think that we need to do right now and that we are doing with clarity, is making sure our men and women are safe in the Middle East,” he said. “And that’s where our focus is today.”
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