Iran hails Democratic midterm win as a rejection of the war with Iran

Tehran reads the vote as a verdict on the war

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament and Tehran's chief negotiator in talks with Washington, said on Wednesday, 4 November, that American voters had rejected the war, whether out of conscience or because of the cost of living. In a post on X he wrote that Americans had said no to war and that Iran backed that message. The Democrats won an unquestionable victory in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November, and took control of both chambers of Congress.

Ghalibaf also warned the administration in Washington. He wrote that if the US government betrayed the will of its people to serve the interests of international financiers and blackmailers, it would discover that the rejection came with a nightmare attached.

Trump concedes the Iran war played a role

Donald Trump acknowledged the defeat first on Truth Social, where he suggested the outcome would have been different had he been on the ballot. He then told the New York Times he was ready to work with Democrats in the two years left in his term. Observador also noted that he shared a post showing a cap reading veto, which the broadcaster read as a sign he could block measures backed by the Democratic majority.

In a telephone interview with Fox News, Trump said the war had been partly responsible for the Republican losses. He argued that people agree with what he is doing in Iran but were probably unwilling to pay more for fuel in the short term, and he said the results should not be read as a verdict on his administration. He also told The Wall Street Journal that Iran had been part of the equation when asked whether the conflict contributed to the defeat. Observador's report added that Trump indicated a new attack on Iran could come in the coming period.

Congress and the war powers question

Democrats already hold the majority in both the Senate and the House. Observador reports that they had won 52 of the 100 Senate seats, with several notable results across states that are usually considered Republican territory.

Analysts cited by CNBC, as reported by Adevarul, said the new Democratic majority could push a war powers resolution. Such a resolution would require the Trump administration to end the conflict with Iran if its military operations do not receive explicit authorization from Congress.

Hormuz, fuel prices and the blockade

The conflict began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February. Since then Tehran has regularly targeted ships trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz without its permission, while Washington enforces a naval blockade of Iranian ports south of the strait. Before the war, the route carried 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas.

The disruption pushed fuel prices sharply higher, which in turn weakened the purchasing power of Americans. On Monday, 2 November, Iran said it was ready to reopen the strait provided Washington accepted a series of demands, following threats from the United States and Israel to resume large-scale strikes. The articles do not list those demands.

What remains unsettled

The sources do not say whether Democrats will file the war powers resolution or when it might come to a vote. They also do not describe Washington's response to Iran's conditions for reopening the strait. So far the public positions come from Ghalibaf and Trump, and the two sides remain far apart on the strait.