Category World News

Washington, DC – Several Democrats in the United States have emerged from a classified briefing about the war on Iran, saying they still have little clarity about President Donald Trump’s justifications and end goals, even 11 days into the conflict.

“I emerge from this briefing as dissatisfied and angry, frankly, as I have from any past briefing in my 15 years,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, following Tuesday’s briefing to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Their statements marked the latest wave of condemnation from congressional Democrats, who have a slim minority in the Senate and the US House of Representatives.

Party members in both chambers had recently voted in near unison on resolutions seeking to halt the war, which the US and Israel launched on February 28.

But their efforts to pass a “war powers resolution” to rein in Trump failed amid widespread Republican opposition.

More recently, Democrats have pledged to delay proceedings in the Senate unless top officials from the Department of State and the Pentagon testify under oath about the war.

Following Tuesday’s briefing, Democrats like Blumenthal argued that the Trump administration owes the US public more clarity about the war.

Blumenthal added that the meeting piqued concerns that US forces may be deployed to either Iraq or Iran.

“I am left with more questions than answers, especially about the cost of the war,” he said.

“I am most concerned about the threat to American lives of potentially deploying our sons and daughters on the ground in Iraq. We seem to be on a path towards deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, said that the Trump administration “cannot explain the reasons that we entered this war, the goals we’re trying to accomplish and the methods for doing that”.

She also pointed to the high cost of the military operations against Iran, which some have estimated to exceed $5.6bn in the first two days alone.

Warren pointed out that Republicans cut healthcare subsidies last year in an effort to reduce federal spending, but appear to have no problem approving military expenses.

“While there is no money for 15 million Americans who lost their healthcare”, she noted, “there’s a billion dollars a day to spend on bombing Iran”.

While approached by reporters, Senator Jacky Rosen indicated she was limited in her ability to comment on classified briefings. Still, she offered brief remarks to voice her frustration.

“I can tell you what I heard is not just concerning. It is disturbing,” she said. “And I’m not sure what the end game is or what their plans are. They certainly have not made their case.”

‘On our timeline and at our choosing’

The latest round of criticism came shortly after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pledged to conduct the “most intense day” of strikes since the war began.

As of Tuesday, the war had killed at least 1,255 people in Iran, 394 people in Lebanon, 13 in Israel, six in Iraq and 14 across the Gulf.

Trump has repeatedly said the war would not be prolonged, but his officials have offered shifting timelines. Hegseth, for instance, said the fighting would not stop “until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”.

“We do so on our timeline and at our choosing,” he said.

The Trump administration has also offered an array of justifications for launching the war, which came amid indirect talks with Iran on the future of its nuclear programme.

Trump has blamed Iran’s nuclear ambitions for the conflict, though Tehran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon, and his administration has also said the war was necessary to end Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

Experts have said that available evidence does not support the Trump administration’s claims that either posed an immediate threat to the US.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last week that the US attacked because its close ally Israel had planned to attack Iran, which would have led to retaliation against US assets.

Rubio and Trump subsequently backed away from the circular rationale, with Trump claiming last week that Iran was the one planning to strike first.

Another rationale the Trump administration offered is that the totality of Iran’s actions since the 1979 Islamic revolution represented a threat to the US, thereby necessitating an attack.

Trump and his top officials have not provided evidence for any of their claims.

Calls for hearings, investigation

Democrats have been largely sidelined since the war began. Only a handful of Republicans have joined the left-leaning party in its efforts to rein in Trump through legislative means.

Under the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war. But presidents can still use the military to respond to imminent threats in instances of self-defence.

Still, there are limits to how long such operations can proceed. Under the 1973 War Powers Resolution, presidents must withdraw forces within 60 to 90 days of an unauthorised military campaign, or else seek congressional approval.

Trump, however, has denied he needs congressional backing for the military campaigns he has conducted since returning to office.

The latest attacks in Iran have sparked widespread public opposition, with polls suggesting a majority of US citizens oppose the war effort.

Earlier this week, six Democratic senators called for an investigation into a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, in southern Iran. Several investigations have indicated that the US was responsible for the attack, which killed at least 170 people, mostly children.

Last week, nearly 30 members of Congress called for an investigation into reports that US military leaders had used biblical motivations to justify the war to subordinates.

Some reportedly invoked “religious prophecy and apocalyptic theology” in statements to other enlisted personnel.

On Monday, Senator Cory Booker said Democrats had “collectively agreed” to use an array of procedural mechanisms in the chamber to block legislative business until Trump officials agree to testify under oath.

“Each individual senator has a tremendous amount of power to disrupt the normal functioning of the Senate, as well as certain privileges that we can exercise,” Booker said.

Washington, DC – As the United States and Israel continue to wage war with Iran, civil rights experts have noted a troubling trend: an ongoing rise in Islamophobia, even in the highest echelons of the US government.

Representative Andy Ogles, for example, has said, “Muslims don’t belong in American society”, adding that “pluralism is a lie”.

His Republican colleague, Representative Randy Fine, has also amplified anti-Muslim rhetoric online.

“If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one,” he said one recent post. In another, Fine wrote: “Deport them ALL.”

In January, Representative Keith Self, also a Republican, shared on social media: “Islam is on the march and seeks world domination.”

Those kinds of statements, coupled with punitive actions under United States President Donald Trump, have created the environment for an increase in Islamophobia and discrimination in the US, according to advocates.

“This is an extreme language that is often used to advance extreme policies,” said Corey Sawyer, the research and advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a civil rights group.

CAIR released its annual report on Tuesday, which outlines what it sees as an increasingly hostile environment, one that began even before the outbreak of the war with Iran.

While the legal rights of Muslims in the country have not changed “on paper”, CAIR argues that those rights have been narrowed amid anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies.

That puts all US residents at risk, regardless of religion, the organisation said.

“In 2025, what we saw in the United States was a group of powerful public officials assert that freedom comes with conditions,” Sawyer said.

“You have to speak their approved lines. You have to worship in ways in which they approve. You should trace your ancestry to places that they approve of. And you should think the thoughts that they approve.”

Sawyer explained that the push to silence Muslim voices in the US was a symptom of a broader rollback of free-speech rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

“Protecting your right to be different and your right to dissent isn’t a favour to any one community,” Sawyer added. “That’s the operating system of a free country.”

‘Broad attack on Muslim life’

In Tuesday’s report, CAIR indicated its offices across the country received 8,683 complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide in 2025, a slight increase from the previous year.

It was the highest volume of complaints for CAIR since it began publishing its civil rights report in 1996.

Sawyer pointed to several factors that contributed to the uptick. The Trump administration, for example, has rolled back its civil rights operations at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Education.

The White House has also led efforts to punish schools and students for their participation in pro-Palestinian protests and activities.

Then, there have been statements from the president himself, attacking Muslim-majority groups living in the US, including Somalis and Afghans.

Taken together, those actions amounted to a “broad attack on Muslim life” in 2025, Sawyer said.

Meanwhile, CAIR’s report said that “anti-Muslim narratives more clearly resurfaced in 2025, particularly the notion that the religious principles followed by Muslims are inherently threatening and anti-American”.

At least five pieces of legislation introduced on the federal level sought to “effectively ban the practice of the world’s second-largest religion in the United States or entry of its adherents into the nation”, the report said.

Several of those bills sought to ban so-called “sharia” practices, adopting “terminology developed by anti-Muslim extremists in the mid-2000s”, according to CAIR’s report.

CAIR also pointed to the creation of a so-called “Sharia-Free America Caucus” launched by Representatives Chip Roy and Keith Self last year, which currently claims 45 lawmakers as members.

The report said the caucus seeks to “advance the idea that Muslim religious identity disqualifies people from participation in American civic life”.

CAIR itself was targeted in 2025, with the governors of both Texas and Florida labelling the group a “foreign terrorist organization”.

The label carries no legal weight on the state level, and CAIR< has continued to operate in the states.

But it has filed lawsuits accusing the governors, accusing them of defamation and of seeking to trample the group’s First Amendment rights.

Trickledown effect from federal messaging

In addition to sounding the alarm about nationwide trends, Tuesday’s report drew a line between targeted actions in specific states and heightened pressure on individual Muslim-majority groups.

Minnesota, for instance, was a state where the Trump administration initiated a hardline immigration push in December and January.

The enforcement effort was dubbed “Operation Metro Surge”, and it came in response to a welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota that Trump blamed on the state’s large Somali American community.

In the lead-up to Operation Metro Surge, the president repeatedly made racist remarks about Somali Americans, referring to them as “garbage”.

CAIR’s report indicated that those federal actions resulted in the growth of anti-Muslim discrimination in the Midwestern state.

It identified Minnesota as one of five states — including Florida, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas — where complaints of anti-Muslim discrimination have steadily risen over the last three years.

Minnesota saw a 96 percent increase from 2024 to 2025, with 23 percent of complaints lodged in the final month of last year.

CAIR’s report also cited heightened pressure on the Afghan community in the US.

Last November, an Afghan man was identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of two members of the US National Guard in Washington, DC.

The Trump administration responded by imposing a blanket pause on Afghan visa and immigration processing. In the wake of the attack, CAIR said Afghans were “collectively treated as suspicious” in the US and faced increased scrutiny.

Impacts on education

On the state level, CAIR’s report identified actions in Texas and Florida as stigmatising aspects of Muslim life.

In Florida, for instance, lawmakers recently advanced a bill known as HB 1471, which includes punishments for schools and students linked to “foreign terrorist organisations”, as designated by the state. That could include the withholding of school voucher funds or expulsion for individual students.

While proponents of the law say it does not mention religion or nationality, critics point out that state authorities have already moved to label Muslim groups like CAIR as “terrorist” in nature.

“These efforts raise the risk of lawful Muslim participation in Florida civic life and contribute to a narrative that places Muslims as outside the circle of protected religious and civic engagement,” the report said.

Already, CAIR said dozens of pro-Palestinian student protesters and faculty supporters have faced an ongoing pattern of discrimination for their advocacy work, particularly since Trump returned to office in 2025.

Several, including Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Madhawi and Badar Khan Sur, are currently embroiled in Trump-led efforts to deport them.

The Trump administration has also sought to penalise universities that saw pro-Palestinian protests unfold on their campuses.

Some top schools have faced civil rights probes and had their federal funds frozen. Others have been forced to accept settlements that involve multimillion-dollar fines.

The Trump administration has led such efforts under the auspices of combatting anti-Jewish sentiment.

But CAIR noted the Trump administration has relied on the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s (IHRA) definition of “antisemitism” in its justification, which is “widely seen as conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism”.

‘Deceiving you for their own purposes’

CAIR’s analysis echoes a separate report from the US Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), published on Monday.

That report concluded that the launch of the US-Israeli war with Iran “accelerated” the spread of harmful content targeting American Muslims.

Online commentators have increasingly adopted “dehumanising language” since the war began, referring to Muslims as “pests”, “rats”, “vermin”, “parasites” and an “infestation”, according to the CSOH report.

“Such language has historically preceded and enabled the most extreme forms of violence against targeted communities,” it warned.

On Tuesday, Sawyer rejected the narrative that Muslims are not a part of the United States’s social fabric, pointing out that they have been present in the US since its founding.

Looking forward, he warned of politicians seeking to use anti-Muslim rhetoric for political ends.

“Anyone who attempts to say that our country is anything other than a nation where many faiths thrive — and that Islam is an American religion — is deceiving you for their own purposes,” Sawyer said.

Rescue workers carefully extracted an unexploded missile from a house in Kuhdasht City, following US-Israeli airstrikes on western Iran.