A senior Pentagon official declined to say whether the Trump administration
would seek congressional authorization before restarting military operations
against Iran or whether deploying US ground forces remains under consideration.
Daniel Zimmerman, assistant secretary of defense for international security
affairs, told lawmakers President Donald Trump “retains the options at his
disposal” and said decisions on offensive combat operations are “the president’s
to make.” Zimmerman added that negotiations are underway “to try to achieve a
long-term solution.” Trump said earlier that renewed military operations against
Iran were “an hour away” before he halted them after talks with Gulf leaders.
