TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said on Wednesday that anyone expecting a shift in US policy was “seriously mistaken”, hours after US midterm elections dealt a serious blow to US 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,” Ayatollah 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.

US and Israeli leaders have in recent days threatened to resume attacks against Iran.

Iran’s chief negotiator says Americans have voted against war

“Should such aggressions be repeated, the war’s scope will become much wider,” said Ayatollah 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,” Mr Ghalibaf said.

Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei also hailed the US election results, saying Trump had been defeated both militarily and politically.

“We will certainly inflict further defeats on him,” he added.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 57, was elected supreme leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was assassinated in the start of the war against Iran in joint US-Israeli strikes.

Iran’s new supreme leader has since communicated through written messages.

The US war against Iran has proved extremely unpopular among the US public, who have seen the cost of living rise after a spike in energy prices caused by the war.

Trump on Tuesday acknowledged the conflict may have played a part in the defeat of his Republican Party in the US elections.

“I think a part of it was Iran, but at the same time, people understood the importance of what I’ve done,” Trump told Fox News.

US drone destroyed, Iran says

Meanwhile, Iran’s state media citing Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) stated Iranian air defences destroyed a US MQ1 drone over Qeshm island, a day after President Donald Trump said the United States had launched strikes on the Islamic republic.

Also, the IRGC said they had shot down a drone over the Strait of Hormuz, while four non-compliant oil tankers attempting to pass through the prohibited passage south of the Strait of Hormuz were destroyed after striking naval mines.

“Two other non-compliant ships or vessels have also been halted.”

Indirect contact between the United States and Iran via mediators has continued with little sign of any diplomatic breakthrough after the unilateral withdrawal of the US from the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding.

Iran has reiterated it is ready to reopen the strait but only if Washington implements the agreed list of demands.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2026