Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities are painting the sweeping midterm election defeats for United States President Donald Trump’s Republican Party as a repudiation by the American public of the war on Iran. Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of the Iranian judiciary, said: “Trump was defeated in both war and politics” and promised that the Islamic republic will impose more defeats. Analysts said the sweeping victories for Democrats, which complicate the president’s remaining years in office, would only serve to make the leadership of Iran more adamant about their demands for ending the war started by the US and Israel on February 28.
Trump has been talking about the possibility of attacking Iran for weeks, but says he hasn’t made a decision yet, as a US naval blockade, sanctions and trade disruptions are also heavily pressuring the country. Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, said the electoral defeat of Trump’s Republican Party will increase pressure to end the Iran war, but it does not rule out further strikes. Hamidreza Azizi, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the sense of victory being displayed by Iranian decision-makers will likely make them more uncompromising on core demands.
Those include seven conditions set for the partial reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a requirement for the US to take the first step. Wednesday marked the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by Iranian students, triggering a hostage crisis that set the tone for relations in the decades since. In Tehran, the authorities organised demonstrations and speeches around the embassy building and other downtown areas to denounce US-led “global arrogance”.
State-organised marches and events were also held in Bandar Abbas, Mashhad, Qom and numerous other cities. State television also showed pro-government events for schoolchildren. A statement attributed to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was released to mark the day.
He asserted that some still harbour hope that partisan changes in the US or granting concessions to Washington would stop their “enmity” towards Iran, but “they are harshly mistaken”. Khamenei said the only way to attain “absolute deterrence” was to pursue strength. In Tehran’s Enghelab Square, a giant billboard depicting Trump behind prison bars was unveiled on Tuesday.
State-linked media also closely followed the US elections, and cheered for some of the bigger losses for hawkish Republicans. Iran and the US continue to fight over control in and around the Strait of Hormuz, while the Trump administration also counts on changing the behaviour of Iran’s authorities through imposing a blockade and economic pressure on 90 million Iranians. Chatham House’s Vakil said she expects intensified diplomacy alongside continued military threats over the coming weeks, with limited military strikes still a possibility.
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