Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Syed Mojtaba Ali Khamenei, warned on Wednesday that the Middle East war would expand if the United States resumes its attacks. He rejected the idea that Washington’s approach could soften after midterm elections that handed a heavy defeat to President Donald Trump.
Trump has recently threatened to restart the war against Iran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced similar rhetoric. The vote on Tuesday, however, went badly for Trump’s Republicans, who are set to lose control of Congress.
Khamenei rejects any hope of a US policy shift
In a written statement issued on Wednesday, Khamenei said that anyone hoping the United States would change its hostile conduct through party or factional shifts was seriously mistaken. He also said that concessions to Washington would not discourage it from hostility toward the Iranian nation.
He added that if the US chose further military action, the scope of the war would grow, though he did not say how. Khamenei has not appeared in public since taking power in March, after his father and predecessor was killed in US-Israeli strikes. Since then he has communicated only through written messages.
The midterm results could limit Trump’s ability to push his agenda through Congress. The president, however, still holds the authority to order new strikes.
Iranian officials welcome the US election outcome
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with Washington, said Americans had voted against war in the midterms. In a post on X, he wrote that Americans had said no to war and that Iran backed that message. He warned that if the US government ignored the will of its public, it would discover that Iran’s refusal came with a serious cost.
Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, also praised the result. He said Trump had been defeated both militarily and politically.
The war has been unpopular with the American public, who have watched living costs climb after energy prices spiked because of the conflict. Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that the war may have contributed to his party’s defeat. “I think a part of it was Iran, but at the same time, people understood the importance of what I’ve done,” he told Fox News.
Qeshm Island strikes and stalled diplomacy
On Tuesday, the US carried out strikes on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, and Iranian state media reported five explosions in quick succession. Trump told US media that Iran had built an anti-aircraft facility and that the US had hit it the previous night. He described the operation as a “minor attack”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said it had intercepted and destroyed a US MQ-1 drone over Qeshm Island. There was no confirmation of that claim from the American side.
Earlier this week, Trump said he still had to deal with one or two targets, including Pickaxe Mountain in central Iran, which he described as a suspected nuclear site. Tehran denies that the facility has any such purpose. Trump later told the Financial Times that a full-scale return to war might not be needed. “We seem to be getting everything we want,” 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.”
Mediators are working intensively to prevent fighting from resuming. On Tuesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his government was still seeking a settlement through dialogue, and that the supreme leader had given it new powers to negotiate on issues that had previously been off-limits. Qatar, a mediator in the long-running talks, said it remained hopeful of an interim agreement. Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said both sides were reviewing the proposals put forward. China also said on Wednesday that preventing a return to hostilities was a top priority in its diplomacy with the countries involved.
The war began in February, when the United States and Israel launched a large wave of strikes on Iran. For months, the conflict has been at a stalemate. Iranian officials have repeatedly warned of far-reaching retaliation if Washington resumes fighting.
