TEHRAN (The Thursday Times) — Iran’s parliament speaker has welcomed the Democrats’ win in the US midterms as a vote against the war, and warned Washington not to ignore it.
“Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote 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.”
Voters’ anger over high prices and the war with Iran ran through the campaign, and Democrats will now control both chambers of Congress from January. But the war remains in President Donald Trump’s hands. Asked about it on election night, he said it would be over “when I say it’s over, basically. It’ll end when I say it ends.”
Before the vote, US officials warned that Trump might order a major strike if Republicans lost, which a White House official rejected. Three tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz this week, Iran said, as Qatar kept talks going.
A deal under discussion would reopen the strait in exchange for sanctions relief, followed by nuclear talks. Pakistan has been a central go-between in the war.
