Iran’s Khamenei sees no shift in US policy after Democratic wins

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, said Wednesday that anyone expecting U.S. policy toward Iran to change after Democrats won control of Congress was “seriously mistaken,” even as Tehran’s chief negotiator welcomed the midterm results as a vote against the war.

"Those who still harbor even the slightest hope that the behavior 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 toward the Iranian nation, are seriously mistaken," Khamenei said in a written statement published on his website.

Democrats won both the House and Senate in Tuesday's elections amid voter discontent over the cost of living, President Donald Trump's tariffs and a war that has driven up fuel prices.

The United States and Israel have threatened in recent days to resume attacks on Iran as diplomatic efforts continue to avert a return to full-scale fighting.

The war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 and has been at a stalemate for months, interrupted by sporadic exchanges of fire.

“Should such aggressions be repeated, the war's scope will become much wider," Khamenei said.

Earlier Wednesday, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the United States, said he saw opposition to the war in the election results.

"Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," Ghalibaf wrote on X.

"If the U.S. govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare."

Iranian judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei also welcomed the outcome, saying Trump had been "defeated both militarily and politically."

"We will certainly inflict further defeats on him," he added.

Khamenei, 57, became supreme leader in March after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the start of the war.

He has communicated through written messages and has yet to appear in public since taking office.