On Tuesday, Republican Representative in the US Congress, Thomas Massie, presented articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of abusing his position by carrying out an order to launch hostilities against Iran without the approval of Congress, according to what was reported by the Reuters news agency.
It is unlikely that the impeachment decision will be approved, but this step taken by the Republican representative from Kentucky may force a vote in the House of Representatives, which may pose a difficulty for some of his Republican colleagues who are preparing to leave Washington before the midterm elections scheduled for November.
“The entire department is united behind the secretary’s vision and will continue to work to put our warfighters and America’s interests first,” Pentagon spokesman Kingsley Wilson said in an emailed statement.
Massie presented the articles of impeachment against Hegseth as a priority, meaning the House must consider them within two days of legislative work.
Massie, an outspoken critic of the war on Iran and aid to Israel, will not run for re-election. He lost the primary election in May to a candidate backed by Republican President Donald Trump, after Massie angered the president by leading a campaign to unseal Justice Department files linked to the late businessman convicted of sex crimes Jeffrey Epstein.
Massie was defeated by Ed Gallerin, who is supported by Trump and has huge financial support from pro-Israel groups.
Opinion polls indicate that the war, which began with attacks launched by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28, is unpopular with voters. Members of Congress, most of whom are Democrats, repeatedly voted in favor of resolutions calling on Trump to end the conflict unless he obtained the support of Congress, but these resolutions did not lead to a cessation of hostilities.
Opinion polls indicate that Republicans loyal to Trump face an uphill battle to maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate when voters go to the polls on November 3.
The results of a poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos and published yesterday, Monday, showed that Democrats are ahead of Republicans by 44 percent compared to 37 percent in voting preferences for Congress.
Trump's popularity has declined since he launched the war that disrupted oil shipments and pushed fuel prices to levels close to their highest levels ever, which negatively affected the financial situation of American families.
The US military announced on Tuesday that it opened fire on and destroyed two small Iranian boats this week while they were trying to steal a drone boat in the waters off Iran, according to the German News Agency.
Captain Tim Hawkins, spokesman for US Central Command, said: “The two small Iranian boats recently attempted to seize an unmanned American surface ship, but their mission was not crowned with success, after Central Command responded forcefully.”
Iranian official media reported yesterday, Monday, quoting a local official, that two fishing boats were attacked in Hormozgan Province on the southern coast of Iran, and that a number of fishermen were missing.
Hawkins stated today that the unmanned boat in question is a “Seal Drone” model, about 8 meters long, and has the ability to operate autonomously.
Hawkins confirmed that the locations of all the command's surface drones are fully known. The US Army has long stressed that the technology used in Cell Drone vehicles is commercially available and is not of a sensitive nature.
Ukraine faces a paradox that is exacerbated by the volatility of the fuel market. The strikes it launches to raise the cost of the war on Russia have become the subject of American pressure to stop them, after President Donald Trump linked the targeting of Russian refineries to the global diesel shortage.
Between Kiev's need to maintain a tool that drains its opponent's economy and Washington's need to ease price pressures, the proposal to protect energy facilities has returned to the forefront, while attacks on infrastructure continue to test opportunities to reduce the calm.
The exchanged strikes continued on Tuesday, coinciding with a Ukrainian announcement of an attack north of Donetsk, and escalation of tension in the Baltic Sea, after a Russian frigate fired two flares at a Danish military helicopter, shooting down a march over Lithuania, and an attack on a Ukrainian train near the Polish border, coinciding with the departure of another train that was carrying Western officials.
So far, the mechanism for implementing the agreement, which Trump said the two sides had agreed to, remains unclear. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed conditional readiness, while Moscow welcomed the call to stop strikes on its facilities. These positions are separated by questions about reciprocity, guarantees, and the scope of protected targets, all amid an escalation that approaches NATO's borders.
Conditional truce
Reuters reported that Zelensky linked his support for the American proposal to Washington's ability to guarantee Moscow's seriousness. He stressed the need for any understanding to be credible, durable, and to have a tangible impact on the lives of civilians. Therefore, the Ukrainian position did not provide absolute support for Trump's declaration, but rather a request to translate it into verifiable commitments.
The wording is particularly important, as protecting “energy facilities” may be narrower in scope than stopping attacks on “vital infrastructure,” which includes transportation and logistics facilities. Any ambiguity in the definition allows the continuation of strikes on economic targets of different classifications, and makes the exchange of accusations of violating the understanding closer than consolidating it.
For its part, the Kremlin welcomed Trump's call for Kiev to stop targeting diesel facilities. This position gives Moscow an opportunity to defend its oil sector, without alone constituting a corresponding pledge to stop bombing Ukrainian facilities.
This bargaining has previously appeared in the maritime navigation file. On August 24, Zelensky stated that Russia is not ready to agree to a truce on grain ships, because it seeks to expand its scope to include Russian refineries and pipelines, according to Reuters. This reveals that negotiations on protecting the economies of the two countries have been underway for weeks, and that the dispute centers on the cost and limits of each concession.
The field tests promises
This diplomatic effort comes in light of an ongoing field escalation, as Reuters reported on Tuesday that Russia launched a night attack with about 200 marches, hitting energy and port facilities in Ukraine, killing two people, while damaging gas stations in Kiev.
On the other hand, Zelensky announced the targeting of the Russian Syzran refinery and march production facilities in Taganrog and Oryol. On Monday, Russian local authorities announced that one person was killed, and another was injured, in a drone attack on a commercial facility in a village in the Belgorod region.
On the contact lines, the commander of the Ukrainian Third Corps, Andrey Beletsky, announced an offensive operation north of Donetsk, which he said had removed Russian infiltrations from an area of 75 square kilometers, and recovered an additional 10 kilometers. Reuters reported that the operation aimed to disrupt the Russian supply near Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, while Russian pressure continues south towards Kostyantinivka.
This is accompanied by targeting communication routes away from the front. Sunday's attack on a train near the Polish border once again highlighted the fragility of the transport network, and the head of the Ukrainian railways confirmed on Monday that the attacks were worsening week after week, according to Agence France-Presse. These incidents illustrate the continuous exchange of blows, but they are not sufficient alone to judge the extent of compliance with a proposal whose implementation date has not been announced. This expands the question of pacification; Does it include the protection of electricity and fuel only, or also the facilities that allow the continuity of economic life?
