Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has condemned a closed-door briefing by Trump administration officials on the US-Israel operation against Iran, calling their answers 'completely and totally insufficient'. The briefing, held in a classified facility at the Capitol, was attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine.
Schumer told reporters after the meeting that the briefing 'raised many more questions than it answered'. He departed without taking further questions. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said officials failed to demonstrate an imminent threat to the United States, arguing that equating a threat to Israel with a threat to America was 'uncharted territory'.
The briefing came ahead of a planned War Powers vote in Congress. President Donald Trump earlier outlined objectives including destroying Iran's missile capabilities, annihilating its navy, and preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons. He predicted the war would last four to five weeks but said the US had the 'capability to go far longer'.
US Central Command reported six service members killed and 18 seriously wounded in the operation, dubbed 'Epic Fury'. In a separate incident, Kuwaiti air defences mistakenly shot down three US F-15 jets; all six crew members ejected safely. The State Department urged Americans to 'depart now' from over a dozen Middle Eastern countries, with hundreds of thousands stranded after airspace closures at major Gulf airports.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran's missile and nuclear programmes would have been 'immune within months' without the strikes. Meanwhile, Melania Trump became the first spouse of a sitting world leader to preside over a UN Security Council meeting, focusing on children's education in conflict zones. Iranian state media reported that an airstrike killed at least 165 people at a girls' school over the weekend.
