Khamenei: US Midterm Results Do Not Signal Policy Change

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei stated on Wednesday that expectations of a US policy shift following the midterm elections were wrong.

Khamenei issued a written statement saying that anyone hoping for changes in American behavior due to partisan shifts is seriously mistaken. He also warned that making concessions to the United States would not dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation. The 57-year-old leader has not appeared in public since taking power in March, eight months ago. He communicated only through written messages during his father's tenure as well, though reports suggest he was badly injured in the strike that killed his predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The United States launched a war against Iran alongside Israel on February 28. The goal was to destabilize the Iranian regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. In June, the two nations signed a memorandum of understanding outlining a path to a permanent settlement. That deal quickly fell apart as each side accused the other of violations. The countries have traded intermittent blows and remain in a stalemate. Khamenei warned that if aggression repeats, the war's scope will widen.

Democrats gained control of the US Congress in Tuesday's midterms. The result reflected voter anger over living costs, tariffs, and the ongoing war with Iran, which has driven fuel prices higher. Iranian officials reacted openly to the election. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator with Washington, posted on X that Americans said no to war. He added that if the US government betrays the public will to serve international paymasters, it will learn that Iran's no comes with a nightmare. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the judiciary chief, said Trump was defeated militarily and politically. He vowed to inflict further defeats on him.

Iranian media celebrated the Democratic victory. A judiciary-run outlet shared a joke on X claiming Trump failed at regime change in Iran but succeeded in Texas, where a Democrat won a Senate race for the first time in decades. The newspaper Hamshahri ran a front-page image of Trump blindfolded and bowing under the headline Iran's shadow over US elections. The conservative paper Jam-e Jam called the result the twilight of Trumpism. Two senior Iranian sources told Reuters that despite welcoming the win, Tehran feared Trump might seek to compensate with a military strike. The country remained on high alert.

Trump reacted to the results in a Fox News interview on Wednesday. He said a part of the outcome was related to Iran, but he also noted that people understood the importance of his actions regarding Iran. Wednesday also marked the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran. Thousands paraded through the capital to commemorate the event. Demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and chanted death to America and death to Israel. They displayed effigies of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. One effigy depicted Trump as a ferocious dog poised to attack, with Netanyahu holding his leash.

Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani addressed the crowd at the rally. He said the decisive defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent developments and elections was the result of the Iranian nation's steadfastness and strength. On November 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the US Embassy and took American diplomats and other citizens hostage. They held 52 people for 444 days until their release on January 20, 1981. This crisis cemented the rupture between the two countries, which have had no formal diplomatic relations for decades.