Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>, meanwhile, accused Trump of \u201cdragging\u201d the U.S. into a war that American people do not want.\n<\/p>\n\u201cThis war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez noted that the U.S. and Iran were in the midst of the third round of indirect nuclear talks in Geneva, while Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said \u201cgood progress\u201d had been made. Trump later said he was \u201cnot happy\u201d with Iran\u2019s approach but indicated that he would give negotiators more time to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez said Trump could have staved off the war if the US had remained in negotiations with Iran.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead,\u201d Ocasio-Cortez said. \u201cThis is a deliberate choice of aggression when diplomacy and security were within reach. Stop lying to the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cViolence begets violence. We learned this lesson in Iraq. We learned this lesson in Afghanistan. And we are about to learn it again in Iran. Bombs have yet to create enduring democracies in the region and this will be no different.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vel\u00e1zquez, on the other hand, described strikes on Iran as \u201cillegal\u201d and warned that the move would drag the US into \u201canother endless war.\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez called on Congress to pass the War Powers Resolution, introduced by U.S. Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, which would prohibit US Armed Forces from engaging in unauthorized hostilities against Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis unauthorized war risks the lives of innocent Iranians & US troops. Congress must pass @RepThomasMassie & @RepRoKhanna\u2018s War Powers Resolution & stop this,\u201d Vel\u00e1zquez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meeks described airstrikes on Iran as a \u201creckless abuse\u201d of presidential power and said Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. into \u201canother open-ended Middle East war\u201d without a clear exit strategy. He also accused the President of authorizing the strikes without consulting Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongress was not consulted, nor was it given the opportunity to authorize the use of force,\u201d Meeks said. \u201cThis is an unacceptable breach of its constitutional role.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Meeks added that the goals that Trump has outlined, including dismantling Iran\u2019s missile arsenal, destabilizing its nuclear program and regime change, are not conducive to a \u201climited strike.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the objectives of a prolonged war,\u201d he said. \u201cMilitary force can degrade Iran\u2019s capabilities, but without a defined end state and real diplomacy, these objectives invite de-escalation.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, whose district covers a small part of Queens County, said he agreed with Trump\u2019s objectives to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities, although he called on the President to clearly define his objectives in order to avoid \u201canother costly, prolonged war in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suozzi added that Trump briefed the bipartisan House, Senate, and Intelligence leadership prior to the strikes as required and said the President has committed to briefing full Congress in the coming days. Suozzi further added that Trump must seek congressional authorization for the conflict under the War Powers Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran remains the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the region and must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon,\u201d Suozzi said on social media. \u201cPreventing that outcome is vital to our national security, the safety of our allies, and the stability of the Middle East.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President must now clearly define the national security objective and articulate his plan to avoid another costly, prolonged war in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[63302,26938,310,153,877,16660,14670,23089,9,24,63,122,124,123,14753],"class_list":{"0":"post-151339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-alexandra-ocasio-cortez","9":"tag-congressmember-nydia-velazquez","10":"tag-daily-newsletter","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-grace-meng","13":"tag-gregory-meeks","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-marco-rubio","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-queens","20":"tag-queens-headlines","21":"tag-queens-news","22":"tag-tom-suozzi"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-03-122410.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n