Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said anyone expecting a change in US policy towards Iran was a “grave mistake”, hours after midterm elections dealt a blow to President Donald Trump.
“Those who still hold out a glimmer of hope that the behavior of the hegemonic regime might change due to changes in parties and factions, or who imagine that concessions to the United States will deter hostility towards the Iranian state, are making a grave mistake,” Khamenei said in a written statement posted on his website.
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Iran’s head of state, who has not appeared in public since his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei was assassinated in a US-Israeli attack on his official residence in February, said Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz had shattered the “myth of American invincibility” and warned that any new US attack would prompt a broader reaction.
Khamenei’s statement was released on the anniversary of the 1979 occupation of the US embassy in Tehran, which Iran annually marks as the National Day of the Global Fight against Arrogance.
“If there are repeated violations, the situation will become more widespread,” he said, warning that renewed U.S. attacks on Iran could lead to a broader conflict.
Mr. Trump himself has acknowledged that the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, which began in February, may have played a role in the Republican’s poor performance in the election, but argued that voters were responding to rising gas prices rather than the military campaign itself.
“I don’t think this is because of the war,” he told Fox News on Tuesday. “I think it’s because of gas prices.”
“People agree with what I’m doing with Iran, but I think they’re not really into the short-term consequences of paying more for gas.”
President Trump also left open the possibility of a major new attack on Iran, saying on Tuesday’s Fox & Friends show that some people were pushing for what he described as a “major blow.”
“A lot of people want to do banging, but a lot of people don’t,” he said.
“Americans said no to war”
Khamenei’s comments came as another senior Iranian official struck a more conciliatory tone on Wednesday, following the U.S. vote that gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress and a historic victory.
“Whether it was conscience or the cost of living, Americans said no to war. We support this message,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in Washington and speaker of parliament.
“If the United States (government) betrays the will of the people to serve international funders and blackmailers, we will learn that our no comes with nightmares,” he added of X.
Mohammad Mokba, an adviser and aide to the supreme leader, said Trump had been “slapped in the face by his own people.”
“The real winner in this field is Iran, which has shifted the cost of the war to the United States,” he wrote in X.
“Pure revenge”
But Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Politics, warned that a Democratic victory could actually increase the risk of further Trump momentum in the short term.
“He shows a pattern of becoming more reckless in the face of humiliation and defeat,” he said, adding that President Trump may counter the election by stepping up attacks on Iran out of “pure revenge.”
Parsi warned that the period between now and January, when Democrats take control of Congress, could be particularly volatile, during which they could try to use their new majority to limit war funding.
“The combination of time running out and the loss making us even more reckless creates a very dangerous period over the next two months,” he said.
The United States has warned that it may carry out a short but intensive military operation against Iran after the midterm elections.
Hamidreza Moghaddamfar, an adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said Iran would attack targets beyond U.S. military bases if Gulf states allowed the U.S. to attack from their territory. Speaking at a rally in Bandar Abbas, he singled out the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and said Iran would respond with “new doctrine and new technology.”
President Trump has said the United States is ready to act, but suggested a new attack may not be necessary as hopes remain for a negotiated solution.
“We’re ready. We’re ready. If we need to leave, it’s locked and loaded, but there may be no reason to do so,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times.
