Iranian officials on Wednesday celebrated U.S. voters’ rebuke of the Republican Party and President Donald Trump in the midterm elections, as the region waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war. Concerns about the war’s effects, particularly frustration over rising prices for fuel and other goods in the U.S., helped Democrats win control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s vote. “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote on X. “If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.” The broader region has been on edge over the prospect of the U.S. resuming full-scale military operations against Iran for the first time in almost two months. Talks aimed at preventing renewed fighting continue, while other U.S. allies in the region are urging Washington against resuming full-scale operations in the war, now more than eight months old, which 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. Despite ceasefire agreements and repeated diplomatic efforts, military confrontations have continued in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz, raising concerns about a return to full-scale fighting. Iran’s supreme leader said those who think partisan changes in the United States can change its enmity 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 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, said: “If there are still those who harbor even a slight hope for a change in behavior 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.” Iranian targets hit ahead of the midterms The midterms came after the U.S. carried out what appeared to be a limited strike on Iranian targets in the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, which raised 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 since the conflict began, while the United States has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Ali Nikzad, Iran’s deputy parliament speaker, linked Republican election losses to Washington’s policy toward Iran. He told lawmakers Wednesday that U.S. sanctions had failed to break Iran’s economy or force its people to surrender. “The enemy’s efforts to bring down Iran’s economy have failed time and again,” Nikzad said, adding: “These defeats are the aftershocks of defeat at the hands of the Iranian people.” Iran marks anniversary of 1979 seizure of U.S. Embassy The anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was marked in Iran on Wednesday, with thousands of people parading through the Iranian capital to commemorate the event. Demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” Effigies of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were displayed alongside caricatures of the two leaders. One depicted Trump as a ferocious dog poised to attack, with Netanyahu holding its leash. Addressing the demonstrators, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani claimed the United States and Israel had suffered a decisive defeat, including in the U.S. midterms. “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.” On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy, taking American diplomats and other citizens hostage. Fifty-two Americans were held for 444 days before being released on Jan. 20, 1981. The crisis helped cement the rupture between the two countries, which have had no formal diplomatic relations for decades. Iran’s influential hard-line judiciary chief, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, linked the election results to the war and the anniversary of the hostage crisis in a post on X. “Trump failed both in war and in politics. We will certainly impose even more defeats upon him,” he wrote. The United States and Israel launched a 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. Back-channel negotiations continue Back-channel negotiations have continued as Israel and some Middle Eastern allies lobby Trump. U.S. 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 U.S. 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. Netanyahu pushed for another wave of strikes on Iran after the U.S. elections during a weekend call with Trump, according to two regional officials and a third person familiar with the matter. The two officials said diplomatic efforts had made progress and mediators were trying to advance a framework under which Iran would halt its attacks in the strait in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified briefings they had received from American officials and, in one case, Israeli officials. The third person, who was briefed on the call, also spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. ___ Associated Press writers Samy Magdy and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report. Elena Becatoros, The Associated Press
