Iran hails US midterm results as Khamenei rejects thaw

Iranian leaders on Wednesday, November 4, celebrated the Republican Party's heavy losses in the U.S. midterm elections, calling them an American rejection of the war on Iran. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei pushed back on that optimism, saying U.S. hostility would not change. Tehran stayed on high alert for possible new U.S. strikes. Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday's vote. AP reported that anger over the war and rising fuel prices helped drive the result.wdtn.com

'NO TO WAR'

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator with Washington, wrote on X: "Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message." He warned that if Washington betrays that will, "it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare," according to CNBC and the BBC.cnbc.com+1

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said Iran had handed Trump "a strategic defeat on the battlefield and in the Hormuz — and a POLITICAL DEFEAT in Washington." He added that "anyone who takes on Iran will pay the price — from the battlefield to their own doorstep," AP said, a quote also carried by Middle East Eye. Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei said Trump "was defeated in both war and politics." Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to the supreme leader, said Iran had "moved the cost of the war into the United States," according to The Wall Street Journal.wsj.com+2

Khamenei rules out a thaw

Khamenei issued a written statement marking the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy seizure. In it, he said anyone hoping that "partisan or factional shifts" in Washington would end its hostility was "seriously mistaken." He also warned that any renewed attack would bring a "much wider" response, Al Jazeera reported. He has not appeared in public since taking power in March. That followed the killing of his father, Ali Khamenei, in the U.S.-Israeli strikes that started the war on February 28. Thousands marched in Tehran for the anniversary, chanting "Death to America".aljazeera.com+2

Bracing for Trump's next move

Two senior Iranian sources told Reuters that Tehran was worried Trump might try to make up for the loss with a military strike, and that it remained on high alert, The Times of Israel reported. The vote came a day after explosions on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near Bandar Abbas, in what looked like a limited strike. Meanwhile, another U.S. aircraft carrier is heading to the region.timesofisrael.com+1

Trump admitted the war contributed to the Republican losses but defended it, telling the Journal, "I would have done it again," according to Anadolu Agency. Barbara Slavin of the Stimson Center told Al Jazeera that Trump "still retains enormous powers as commander-in-chief, especially before the new Congress is seated."aljazeera.com+1