Iran’s chief negotiator says Americans voted “no to war” after Democrats rout Republicans in midterms
Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said American voters rejected the war with Iran in the midterm elections, warning Washington against betraying what he called the public will, after President Donald Trump acknowledged the conflict hurt his party.
Iran’s chief negotiator in talks with the United States, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has said American voters rejected the war with Iran in Tuesday’s midterm elections, declaring that Americans had voted “no to war” as Democrats swept to control of Congress.
“Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” Ghalibaf, who is also Iran’s parliament speaker, wrote on X on Wednesday. “If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”
His remarks came after Democrats captured majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, dealing a crushing rebuke to President Donald Trump and his Republican Party with two years of his presidency still to run.
Trump himself has acknowledged that the war played a role in his party’s defeat. Speaking after the results, he accepted that the conflict, along with anger over the cost of living and tariffs, had weighed on Republican candidates, while saying Democrats had campaigned well and that he would work with them, even as he threatened to veto what he called “insane” Democratic ideas.
The war began on 28 February, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, seeking to destabilise its government and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes. Reports said the strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, along with senior military commanders.
Since then the conflict has been at a stalemate for months, punctuated by sporadic exchanges of fire and fears of a full-scale resumption of hostilities. Restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil supplies, have disrupted energy markets and driven up fuel costs, feeding the cost-of-living anger that voters cited at the ballot box.
Ghalibaf’s message was not only celebratory. He said Tehran was ready for battle “with its finger on the trigger”, while adding that Iran had made its position clear and that “the ball is now in America’s court to prevent war”, a combination of warning and invitation that will be read closely in Washington.
The reaction matters because Ghalibaf is not a marginal voice. As parliament speaker and Tehran’s chief negotiator with Washington, his words are a deliberate signal from the Iranian leadership about how it reads the American election, and about the price it believes the United States would pay for ignoring it.
For Trump, the midterm result changes the politics of the war at home. A Democratic Congress is expected to demand concessions on major legislation, investigate his administration and scrutinise his foreign policy, and the president, barred by the constitution from seeking a third term, now faces a legislature controlled by his opponents for the final two years of his term.
What happens next is uncertain. The Democrats’ victory does not by itself end the stalemate with Iran, and Trump retains wide executive powers over foreign policy, including the ability to veto legislation. But Ghalibaf’s intervention shows that Tehran intends to treat the election as a mandate against further war, and to press that argument in any renewed talks.
For now, the two sides remain far apart, with sporadic fire continuing and no new negotiations announced. The midterm verdict, however, has given Iran a new talking point, and given opponents of the war in Washington a stronger hand, in a conflict that has already reshaped American politics and global energy markets.
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