TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian officials on Wednesday celebrated Republican losses in the U.S. midterm elections, saying American voters rejected the war with Iran, The Associated Press reported.
“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 AP reported that frustration over rising fuel and consumer prices tied to the war helped Democrats win both chambers of Congress.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since the war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, said in a letter shared on social media that people who think partisan changes in the United States could end its hostility toward Iran are “gravely mistaken.”
Deputy parliament speaker Ali Nikzad told lawmakers that U.S. sanctions had failed to break Iran’s economy.
The region is on edge over whether the U.S. will resume full-scale military operations for the first time in nearly two months. Before the vote, the U.S. carried out what appeared to be a limited strike on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iranian state media reported explosions Monday on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near Bandar Abbas, according to the AP.
Talks aimed at preventing renewed fighting continue. Iran has sharply restricted shipping through the strait, while the U.S. maintains a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Wednesday also marked the anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, with thousands marching in Tehran.
Sources: KTAR News/AP, CBS News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
