Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Senate Appropriations on 12 May that Article 2 covers Iran strikes and an AUMF is not required. The White House signed nothing on Iran across 12 and 13 May, taking the 75-day streak of zero signed instruments past every modern wartime precedent. Trump departed Washington for Beijing without a text on the desk. Iran's Foreign Minister flew the other way, to Delhi.
On Day 75, Hegseth named the verbal track as Article 2 doctrine; the silence was the strategy.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Senate Appropriations on 12 May that Donald Trump has 'all the authorities he needs under Article 2' and an Iran AUMF is unnecessary. The single line, delivered under oath on $29 billion of war spending, converts 75 days of unsigned Iran paper from oversight into stated doctrine.
United States×2Pete Hegseth told the Senate Appropriations Committee on 12 May that Donald Trump needs no congressional approval to keep fighting Iran. He invoked Article 2 of the Constitution and said an Iran war authorisation is unnecessary.
The testimony converts 75 days of unsigned war-fighting into stated doctrine. No War Powers Resolution clock can run out on an authorisation The Administration says it never needed.
Donald Trump boarded Air Force One for Beijing on 13 May with no Iran instrument signed. The White House presidential-actions index logged zero Iran entries across 12 and 13 May, extending the unsigned streak to Day 75.
United StatesDonald Trump flew to Beijing on 13 May for a summit with Xi Jinping, leaving Washington with no Iran document signed across 75 days of war. The White House logged zero Iran entries on both 12 and 13 May.
The last US action on Iran before departure was a Treasury sanctions package on 11 May, a bureau-level measure rather than a presidential order. Axios sources said they expected no military decision before Trump's return on 15 May.
The UK Ministry of Defence on 13 May named Typhoon fighters, HMS Dragon, autonomous mine-clearance vessels and reconnaissance drones for the 40-nation Hormuz mission. Defence Secretary John Healey had co-chaired the planning meeting with French counterpart Catherine Vautrin on 12 May.
Britain committed Typhoon fighters, HMS Dragon, mine-clearance vessels and drones to the 40-nation Hormuz coalition on 13 May. Defence Secretary Healey co-chaired the planning meeting with France's Vautrin on 12 May.
The deployment waits on a ceasefire. But the announcement matters now. Shipping insurers need a written rules-of-engagement document before they reopen Hormuz war-risk cover, and Britain's named platforms provide the credibility that document requires.
Beijing publicly endorsed Pakistan's mediatory role in US-Iran dialogue on 13 May, the day before the Trump-Xi summit opens. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had spoken with Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar on 12 May covering Hormuz mediation and safe passage.
Beijing publicly backed Pakistan as the mediator between the US and Iran on 13 May, the day before the Trump-Xi summit opened. Foreign Minister Wang Yi had spoken with Pakistan's Ishaq Dar on 12 May covering Hormuz mediation.
By placing the endorsement on record before Trump's plane landed, China ensured he could not extract a bilateral mediation deal from Xi. China's Ministry of Commerce Blocking Rules, barring Chinese refineries from following US Iran sanctions, remain active alongside the endorsement.
Brent crude closed $107.77 on 12 May on Trump's verbal rejection of Iran's 10-point MOU reply via Pakistan, then settled at $107.05 on 13 May. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley flagged a structural Hormuz premium that will outlast any ceasefire.
United StatesBrent closed at $107.05 on 13 May, holding $2.84 above the 11 May ceasefire-alive close of $104.21. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said the Hormuz premium will not disappear even if a ceasefire is signed.
The banks split the premium into two layers: a volatile kinetic risk and a sticky insurance problem. Shipping insurers need a written rules-of-engagement document before they reopen Hormuz cover, so UK petrol near £1.55 per litre has no diplomatic endpoint.
Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser warned on 12 May that the global oil market will not normalise until 2027 if the Hormuz blockade runs past mid-June. The forecast extends his 11 May 100 million barrel per week supply-loss warning from a fortnightly figure to a multi-year horizon.
United StatesAramco chief executive Amin Nasser said on 12 May that oil markets will not normalise until 2027 if the Hormuz blockade runs past mid-June. He extended his earlier 100 million barrels-per-week supply-loss warning to a multi-year horizon.
The 2027 date reflects how long shipping insurance takes to reopen. Diverted tankers also need months to reposition. Both processes run separately from any ceasefire timetable.
Hengaw documented three secret executions between 11 and 13 May: aerospace researcher Shakourzadeh at Qezel Hesar, Baloch detainee Abduljalil Shahbakhsh at Zahedan 55 days after arrest, and political prisoner Ehsan Afrashteh at Urmia on espionage charges.
IranHengaw documented two more secret executions on 12 and 13 May. Baloch detainee Abduljalil Shahbakhsh was hanged at Zahedan 55 days after his arrest. Political prisoner Ehsan Afrashteh was executed at Urmia. With Shakourzadeh on 11 May, three people were secretly hanged in 48 hours.
Iran's execution rate has gone from roughly one per week to one every 16 hours. The 30-plus documented cases since the war began crosses the threshold where the UN has historically opened formal investigations.
Bloomberg and CBS News reported on 12 May that the US war against Iran has cost $29 billion, up $4 billion from the $25 billion figure the Pentagon briefed to Congress two weeks earlier. None of the spending has a signed presidential instrument behind it.
United StatesThe US war against Iran has cost $29 billion as of 12 May, up $4 billion from the figure briefed to Congress a fortnight earlier. Bloomberg reported the figure on the same day Hegseth told Senate Appropriations no authorisation is needed.
None of the spending has a signed presidential instrument behind it. Senate Appropriations now holds the only lever Congress can use to constrain the campaign.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi travels to New Delhi on 14-15 May for the BRICS foreign ministers meeting with Russia's Sergey Lavrov and India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Spokesman Ismail Baghaei set ending the war and lifting the Hormuz blockade as 'prerequisites' to nuclear talks.
IranIranian Foreign Minister Araghchi flew to New Delhi on 14-15 May for the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) foreign ministers meeting. He met Russia's Lavrov and India's Jaishankar on the same days as the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing.
Iran's spokesman said on 12 May that ending the war and lifting the Hormuz blockade are prerequisites for nuclear talks. Araghchi's aim was a joint communique encoding that sequencing as a non-Western diplomatic anchor.
Senator Lisa Murkowski's Iran AUMF remained unfiled on 13 May, rendered procedurally moot by Hegseth's Article 2 testimony. Iran's internet blackout reached 1,728 cumulative hours by 12 May, projecting the 2,000-hour milestone to 18-19 May.
United StatesThree threads came together on 13 May. Senator Murkowski's Iran war-authorisation bill stayed unfiled; Hegseth had told Congress no such bill was needed. Iran's internet blackout reached 1,728 cumulative hours, with the 2,000-hour mark due around 18-19 May. The Trump-Xi summit confirmed Iran on its agenda.
All three mark where 75 days of unsigned war-fighting has landed. The legislative brake has been bypassed. Some 90 million Iranians remain offline. Iran now appears on a US-China bilateral agenda.
Sideways through 15 May pending Trump's return from Beijing; tipping point is whether he signs a presidential instrument on 15-16 May or issues a third consecutive blank-desk week. A signed OFAC follow-on designating Iran's remaining NIOC logistics network before Day 78 (16 May) with no presidential instrument behind it would move direction upward, consistent with the Treasury-first pattern of the 11 May Hong Kong sweep (ID:3212, $29bn war cost baseline). De-escalation requires a Trump-Xi joint statement naming the Pakistan channel by text, the first shared written instrument either government has produced in 75 days. Under Hegseth's 12 May Article 2 testimony, the War Powers Resolution 60-day and 30-day clocks have lost operative force; the only remaining brake is Senate Appropriations withholding the next OCO transfer, and Senator Collins, who chairs that committee, has not signalled she will attach conditions.
