Iran downplays US midterm shift, says policy toward Tehran will not change

Iran's leadership has played down the significance of the US midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of Congress and Republicans suffered a setback, saying the result is unlikely to alter Washington's policy toward Iran. The vote followed months of military confrontation between Tehran and Washington that disrupted global energy markets and fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict.

"If there are still those who believe that America can be persuaded to abandon its hostility toward the Iranian nation through concessions or partisan changes in the US political system, they are gravely mistaken," Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a statement. He also warned that Tehran would respond more forcefully to any future US military action.

Mixed assessments inside Iran

Mohammad Sadegh Javadi Hesar, an Iran-based journalist and member of the reformist party Etemad-e Melli, told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that Iran will not change its position simply because Republicans lost their majority. In his view, decisions on ending the conflict will ultimately be made in Washington, while Tehran will keep demanding an end to all hostilities, including in Lebanon, and the lifting of the US naval blockade.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X that Americans had said no to war, though he acknowledged that the rising cost of living also contributed to the Republican defeat. He also mocked US Vice President JD Vance, who had acknowledged that the Iran war was the reason Republicans lost. Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Iran had challenged the US on the battlefield and in the Strait of Hormuz and had also dealt it a political setback in Washington.

The state-affiliated Mehr News Agency compared President Donald Trump's political troubles with those of Jimmy Carter after the failed 1980 US military operation to rescue hostages in Tehran. Carter lost that year's presidential election to Ronald Reagan. Tasnim News Agency, which is close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, argued instead that there is little meaningful difference between Republicans and Democrats on Iran policy.

A diplomat's view

Hossein Alizadeh, a former Iranian diplomat who served 22 years and resigned in 2010 in protest at the crackdown after the 2009 election, considers another large-scale US military escalation unlikely. He noted that the Democrats and US allies were not in favor of attacking Iran.