AP
Riyadh
Iranians, on Wednesday, struck a defiant tone, celebrating US voters’ rebuke of President Donald Trump in the midterm elections while many in the Middle East waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war.
Concerns about the war, particularly frustration over rising prices for fuel and other goods in the US, helped Democrats win control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s vote, a sharp setback for Trump and his Republican Party.
Iran’s supreme leader said those who think partisan changes in the United States can change its hostility toward the Islamic Republic are “gravely mistaken.”
In a letter shared on his social media account, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen publicly since the war began in late February, said: “If there are still those who harbour even a slight hope for a change in behaviour or partisan and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who imagine that by giving concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken.”
The broader region has been on edge for weeks over the prospect of the US resuming full-scale military operations against Iran for the first time in almost two months. Talks aimed at preventing renewed fighting are continuing, while other US allies in the region urge Washington against resuming a war.
that began more than eight months ago and has rattled the global economy and devastated Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly pushed for more strikes, while Trump has alternated between threatening major strikes and pushing for a deal.
Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote Wednesday on X that “Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.”
“If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”
Despite ceasefire agreements and repeated diplomatic efforts, military confrontations have continued in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a social media post that Americans had sent a clear message and warned Washington against ignoring it. If the US continues to ignore reality, the spokesperson said, “the consequences of this grave miscalculation will extend far beyond what you have already witnessed.”
Thousands marched through Tehran on Wednesday to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy and celebrate the US election results.
Demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They displayed effigies of Trump and Netanyahu alongside caricatures of the two leaders.
“Trump has gone too far in everything and that’s one reason for his defeat in the election,” said Hananeh Jahed, a demonstrator.
Zahra Nadiminejad praised Iranian resistance, saying US voters “finally figured out that this is Iran, and they can’t just come in here and do whatever the hell they want.”
“They’ve seen the consequences of the war back home, from skyrocketing gas and food prices to all the devastating effects the war has had on their own country. And whether the Democrats win or the Republicans win, our hostility toward America will never come to an end.”
Nearly three decades ago, Iranian students stormed the US Embassy on Novmber 4, 1979, taking American diplomats and other citizens hostage. Fifty-two Americans were held for 444 days before being released.
The crisis helped cement the rupture between the two countries, which have had no formal diplomatic relations for years.
The United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28, killing the country’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and triggering a conflict that has disrupted global energy markets and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Addressing the demonstrators on Wednesday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani claimed the United States and Israel has suffered a massive defeat.
“The decisive defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent developments and elections is the result of the Iranian nation’s steadfastness and strength,” Zakani said. “Even political rivals in the United States have acknowledged that this failure was the result of the Iranian people’s ingenuity and perseverance.”
Iran’s influential hard-line judiciary chief, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, said on social media that “Trump failed both in war and in politics. We will certainly impose even more defeats upon him.”
The US elections came just a day after what appeared to be a limited strike on Iranian targets in the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, which renewed questions about what might come next.
Iranian state media reported explosions Monday on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian authorities have not publicly identified the specific sites struck or disclosed the extent of the damage.
The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war, has also witnessed repeated incidents involving commercial shipping. Iran has severely restricted shipping through the strait while the United States has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Back-channel negotiations have continued as Israel and some Middle Eastern allies lobby Trump.
US Vice President JD Vance said Monday, before news of the strikes in the Strait of Hormuz emerged, that he and Trump “both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement.”
Before the latest strikes, the Trump administration’s last known attacks on Iran were in early September. Thousands of US troops remain in waters off Iran to maintain a naval blockade aimed at preventing tankers carrying Iranian oil from reaching the global market. Another aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops are on their way to the Middle East.
