Iran says US voters have rejected Trump's war

TEHRAN:

Iranians on Wednesday struck a defiant tone, celebrating US voters' rebuke of President Donald Trump in the midterm elections while many in the Middle East waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father and predecessor was killed in the opening strikes of the war in February, dismissed the prospect of any major change in the US approach to the Islamic Republic.

"If there are still those who harbor even a slight hope for a change in behavior or partisan and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who imagine that by giving concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken," he said on his social media account.

Iran's chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote Wednesday on X that "Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message." He warned that if the U.S. government ignores the vote for change, "it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare."

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a social media post that Americans had sent a clear message and warned Washington against ignoring it. If the U.S. continues to ignore reality, the spokesperson said, "the consequences of this grave miscalculation will extend far beyond what you have already witnessed."

Addressing the demonstrators on Wednesday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani claimed the United States and Israel had suffered a massive defeat, which he said was also reflected in last week's Israeli elections.

"The decisive defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent developments and elections is the result of the Iranian nation's steadfastness and strength," Zakani said.

Iran's state TV said Wednesday that four oil tankers caught fire after they struck mines on what it described as unauthorized routes.