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Mojtaba Khamenei Says U.S. Partisan Changes Won’t End Iran Hostility After Democrats Win Congress
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Khamenei says US hostility toward Iran won't end despite midterm election results. He warns that hoping for U.S. policy change through partisan shifts is mistaken.
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Midterms and Iran’s response
Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei told Iranians that those who think U.S. partisan changes can change hostility toward the Islamic Republic are “gravely mistaken,” in a written statement shared on his social media account.
“Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.”
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, wrote on X that “Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s vote.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson warned Washington that if the U.S. continues to ignore reality, “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 U.S. Embassy and celebrate the U.S. election results, with demonstrators burning American and Israeli flags and chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Trump’s war and political fallout
Trump acknowledged that the war with Iran contributed to Republicans’ crushing loss, telling Fox News on Tuesday night, “I think the issue is partly Iran, but at the same time, people understand the importance of what I did about Iran.”
Trump also told Fox & Friends on Tuesday that some people were pushing for what he described as a “heavy hit,” while he said, “I’m ready, we’re ready. We’re locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it,” in an interview with the Financial Times.
CNN reported that Trump told some journalists he is considering striking Iran hard, and told others he has no immediate plans to escalate, as reports of possible new, more intense strikes fueled anxiety across the region.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, warned that Democrats’ victory could increase the risk of Trump escalating in the short term, saying, “He has shown a pattern in which, in face of humiliation and defeat, he becomes more reckless.”
What comes next for Washington
The BBC described the midterm result as ending Republican dominance of Congress, with Democrats taking control of both the House and the Senate, and it said the shift poses a political challenge to Trump during the remainder of his second term. The Council on Foreign Relations said Democrats secured control of both the Senate and the House “against the backdrop of the Iran war,” and it warned that Democrats will hold the federal purse strings and chair congressional committees while the absence of a veto-proof majority constrains their ability to reverse Trump’s tariff policies or his approach to the Ukraine war.
CFR said the new Congress is expected to focus on affordability and challenge the administration over the Iran war, while it also noted that committee chairs can call hearings, demand documents, and subpoena officials. In Iran, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani claimed the United States and Israel suffered a massive defeat, saying, “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,” as Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi said on social media that “Trump failed both in war and in politics.”