Iran supreme leader says those expecting US policy shift ‘seriously mistaken’

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Wednesday that anyone expecting a shift in US policy was “seriously mistaken”, hours after midterm elections dealt a blow to President Donald Trump. “Those who still harbour even the slightest hope that the behaviour 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 towards the Iranian nation, are seriously mistaken,” Khamenei said in a written statement published on his website.

Democrats seized control of the US Congress in Tuesday’s midterms, reflecting anger over living costs, tariffs and the US war against Iran, which has sent fuel prices soaring. Khamenei’s remarks come with diplomatic efforts underway to avert renewed fighting in the war, which broke out on February 28. US and Israeli leaders have in recent days threatened to resume attacks against Iran.

“Should such aggressions be repeated, the war’s scope will become much wider,” said Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since he took power in March. Earlier, Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the US, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Americans had voted against war. “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” he posted 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,” Ghalibaf said. Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei also hailed the election results, saying Trump had been “defeated both militarily and politically”. “We will certainly inflict further defeats on him,” he added.

Khamenei, 57, was named supreme leader after US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war killed his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The new leader has since communicated through written messages.