Shafaq News/ On Monday, the US Senate voted to advance legislation to repeal authorizations to wage wars in Iraq, which were granted decades ago.

The vote was 65-28 in favor of the bill, which will now move toward approval later this week. All the "no" votes came from members of the Republican Party.

Members of Congress have been arguing for years that they have given presidents of both parties too much power over sending troops to fight by authorizing, and then failing to rescind open-ended wars. They added that presidents had used these authorizations for years to justify military action in separate parts of the world.

The US Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war.

Supporters of the bill argue that the authorizations for using military force against Iraq passed in 1991 and 2002 are now “outdated and inappropriate.” They say that the wars ended long ago, and Iraq is now a partner of the United States. This month marked the twentieth anniversary of the launch of the Iraq war in 2003.

"Removing these authorizations will show the region and the world that the United States is not an occupying power, that the Iraq war is over, and that we are moving forward and working with Iraq as a strategic partner," said Senator Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, before the vote.