Khamenei Says US Midterm Shake-Up Won't Soften Iran Standoff

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has a blunt message for anyone betting the US midterms will thaw Washington–Tehran relations: don't count on it. In remarks addressing Tuesday's vote, Khamenei said those who think a change of party in the White House or Congress will soften America's posture toward Iran are quot;gravely mistaken.quot; Republicans, he noted, were widely defeated at the polls.

Khamenei framed the relationship in stark terms, saying the United States is out for Iran's quot;unconditional surrender.quot; He also defended Iran's recent military moves, describing its takeover of the Strait of Hormuz and the destruction of US bases in the region as direct answers to what he called American quot;aggression and crimes.quot;

The Supreme Leader didn't stop at rehashing the past. On Wednesday he warned that if the US launches fresh attacks, Tehran's response will be quot;far widerquot; than anything seen so far. That threat landed the same day an adviser to Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander, Hamidreza Moghaddamfar, said Iran would hit the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain if American forces use their bases to strike.

Moghaddamfar went further, saying Iran won't limit itself to striking the launch point. quot;This time, we will not only strike the source of the attacks, meaning the bases. Iran's response will go further,quot; he said, adding that Tehran has abandoned its earlier caps on proportional retaliation and geographic reach. He also floated quot;surprising attacksquot; in the event that Iranian political or military officials are assassinated.

The timing matters. Democrats scored significant victories in the midterms, and the fallout is already rippling through markets and diplomacy — shares of Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tesla slipped in premarket trading, China's Foreign Ministry said it's ready to keep working with Washington, and Republicans held a Senate seat in Nebraska while Arizona's Democratic governor won reelection. For Tehran, though, the party label in Washington changes nothing.

Bottom line from Khamenei: expect no reset with the US, and expect any new American strike to draw a broader, less predictable answer. The region's bases, and the Gulf states hosting them, are now squarely in the conversation.