Iran hails US voters rejecting war while Khamenei warns hostility won’t end

Iranian officials see Republican midterm losses in a positive light, but supreme leader says US policy will not shift.

Iranians hold an anti-US placard and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during a rally in front of the former US embassy to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, in Tehran, on November 4 [Atta Kenare/AFP]

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said that anyone expecting a shift in the United States’ policy towards his country is “seriously mistaken”, hours after midterm elections dealt a blow to President Donald Trump.

His comments came as other Iranian officials struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, following the results of the US vote, which saw Democrats score a major victory by taking control of both chambers of Congress.

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“Those who still harbour even the slightest hope that the behaviour of the hegemonic system might change through partisan or factional shifts, or who imagine that making concessions to the United States can dissuade it from hostility towards the Iranian nation, are seriously mistaken,” Khamenei said in a written statement published on his website.

He said that Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz had shattered the “myth of America’s invincibility”, and warned that any renewed US attack would draw a far wider response .

Trump himself has acknowledged the US-Israel war on Iran that began in February likely impacted his Republican Party’s poor performance in the elections, saying voters were probably not ready “for the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline”.

Khamenei said Iran’s confrontation with the US had reached a point where “every day and every hour” had become a time of resistance against “the Great Satan”. His message was to mark the National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance, which falls each year on November 4, the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.

The supreme leader described Iran’s management of the strait and what he called the elimination of US military bases in regional countries as a reaction to US “aggression and crimes” during the war.

“In the event of repeated transgressions, it will take on much wider dimensions,” he said.

‘Americans said NO TO WAR’

The supreme leader struck a “cautious” note on Wednesday, warning that a party shift in the US would not persuade Washington to abandon its hostility against Iran, noted Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas, reporting from Tehran.

This contrasted with a more celebratory mood among other Iranian officials reacting to the Republican defeat, Atas said.

“Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with Washington and his country’s parliament speaker.

“If the US [government] betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” he added on X.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser and assistant to the supreme leader, said Trump had been “slapped in the face by his own people”.

“The true winner in this arena was Iran, which transferred the cost of the war into the United States,” he wrote on X.

Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on Telegram: “Trump was defeated both in war and in politics; we will certainly impose further defeats on him; this is still only the early outcome.” He added that November 4 “has always been a day of defeat for the Americans” and honoured “the dear martyred students of Minab”.

Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy head for communications at the president’s office, said Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, “blind adherence” to Israel’s interests and the “futile war” with Iran had handed the Republicans their biggest defeat.

Atas said Iranians believe a Democratic-controlled Congress could restrain Trump and make him “less reckless” over the war, with some Republicans wary ahead of the 2028 elections. But some in Tehran fear that because officials have framed the result as a defeat imposed by Iran, Trump could “personalise the matter” and launch a new round of war “in an act of revenge”.

The US has warned it could carry out a short but intensive military campaign against Iran after the midterms.

Hamidreza Moghadamfar, an adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Iran would hit targets beyond US bases if Gulf states allowed Washington to launch attacks from their territory. Speaking at a rally in Bandar Abbas, he named the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and said Iran would respond with a “new doctrine and new technology”.

伊朗官员对共和党中期选举的失利持积极态度，但最高领袖表示美国政策不会改变。

11月4日，在德黑兰，伊朗民众在前美国大使馆前举行集会，纪念1979年伊朗人质危机周年，他们举着反美标语和伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊的画像。[Atta Kenare/AFP]

伊朗最高领袖穆杰塔巴·哈梅内伊表示，任何期待美国对伊朗政策发生转变的人都“大错特错”。此前数小时，中期选举结果对美国总统唐纳德·特朗普造成了打击。

在他发表上述言论之前，其他伊朗官员周三在美国大选结果公布后，语气则更为乐观。在大选中，民主党取得了重大胜利，控制了国会两院。

伊朗指挥官列出地区安全的五项条件（共三项，此为第一项）

伊朗称美国对霍尔木兹海峡计划的回应“缺乏说服力”；特朗普确认将发动袭击（共3条，此为第2条）

3/3 在美国的威胁下，谁来决定伊朗的战斗和谈判立场？

哈梅内伊在其网站上发表的一份书面声明中表示：“那些仍然抱有一丝希望，认为霸权体制的行为会通过党派或派系的更迭而改变，或者认为向美国做出让步可以阻止美国对伊朗人民的敌意的人，都大错特错了。”

他表示，伊朗控制霍尔木兹海峡打破了“美国不可战胜的神话”，并警告说，美国任何新的攻击都将招致更广泛的反应。

特朗普本人也承认，2月份开始的美以对伊朗的战争可能影响了共和党在选举中的糟糕表现，他说选民可能还没有准备好“为汽油价格上涨的短期后果”做好准备。

哈梅内伊表示，伊朗与美国的对抗已经到了“每一天、每一小时”都成为抵抗“大撒旦”的时刻的地步。他发表此番讲话是为了纪念每年11月4日举行的“反对全球傲慢国家日”，这一天也是1979年伊朗占领美国驻德黑兰大使馆的周年纪念日。

最高领袖将伊朗对海峡的管控以及他所谓的清除地区国家美国军事基地的行为，描述为对美国在战争期间“侵略和罪行”的回应。

“如果屡次发生违规行为，后果将更加严重，”他说。

“美国人对战争说不”

据半岛电视台驻德黑兰记者雷苏尔·塞尔达尔·阿塔斯报道，伊朗最高领袖周三发表了“谨慎”的讲话，警告说美国政党的更迭不会说服华盛顿放弃对伊朗的敌对态度。

阿塔斯说，这与其他伊朗官员对共和党败选的庆祝情绪形成了鲜明对比。

“无论是出于良心还是生活成本，美国人都对战争说了‘不’，我们支持这一信息，”伊朗与华盛顿的首席谈判代表、伊朗议会议长穆罕默德·巴格尔·加利巴夫说道。

“如果美国政府背叛公众意愿，为国际金主和勒索者服务，它就会明白，我们的‘不’会带来噩梦，”他在X上补充道。

最高领袖的顾问兼助理穆罕默德·莫赫贝尔表示，特朗普“被自己的人民打了一巴掌”。

“这场战争真正的赢家是伊朗，它将战争的成本转移到了美国身上，”他在 X 上写道。

司法部长戈拉姆-侯赛因·莫赫塞尼-埃杰在Telegram上写道：“特朗普在战争和政治上都失败了；我们一定会让他遭受更多失败；这仅仅是初步结果。”他还补充说，11月4日“对美国人来说一直是失败的日子”，并缅怀“米纳布学院殉难的学生们”。

总统办公室通讯副主任迈赫迪·塔巴塔巴伊表示，以色列对加沙发动的种族灭绝战争、“盲目坚持”以色列的利益以及与伊朗的“徒劳战争”给共和党带来了最大的失败。

阿塔斯表示，伊朗人相信，民主党掌控的国会能够约束特朗普，使其在战争问题上“不那么鲁莽”，因为一些共和党人在2028年大选前心存疑虑。但德黑兰一些人担心，由于伊朗官员将此次选举结果定性为伊朗强加的失败，特朗普可能会“将此事个人化”，并“出于报复”发动新一轮战争。

美国警告称，中期选举后可能会对伊朗发动一场短暂但密集的军事行动。

伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队总司令顾问哈米德雷扎·莫格哈达姆法尔表示，如果海湾国家允许华盛顿从其领土发动袭击，伊朗将打击美国基地以外的目标。他在阿巴斯港的一次集会上点名阿联酋和巴林，并称伊朗将以“新的战略和新技术”予以回应。