Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is also Iran's chief negotiator, wrote on X commenting on the US midterm election results, saying: “Conscience or the cost of living... The Americans said no to war, and we support this message,” adding that Washington should not ignore public opinion by attacking his country again.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a written statement that American hostility will continue regardless of which party is in power, warning against “the slightest tendency toward submission” to the United States. He added, "The United States sees the end of its hegemony as far away, while we see it as near."
A news agency affiliated with the judiciary published a joke on X that “Trump failed to change the regime in Iran but succeeded in Texas,” referring to the state where a Democrat won a Senate seat for the first time in decades.
But two high-ranking Iranian sources told Reuters that Tehran was concerned that Trump would seek to compensate for this with a military strike, and remained on high alert, despite Iranian leaders welcoming the Democrats' victory.
In a march organized by the government on Wednesday to commemorate the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran by Iranian students during the Islamic Revolution in 1979, demonstrators expressed their feeling of victory in the elections, which they linked to Iran’s success in withstanding American attacks for months.
Commenting on the coincidence of the two events, the major Iranian newspaper, Hamshahri, wrote the headline, “Iran’s shadow looms over the American elections,” and added that Washington remained “Iran’s prisoner for 47 years: from seizing the nest of spies (the American embassy) to the US Congressional elections in November 2026.”
“I think Iran was part of it, but at the same time, people realized the importance of what I did toward Iran,” Trump told Fox News, referring to the election results.
US President Donald Trump confirmed that the US military carried out an attack on Iran in the early hours of Tuesday morning (November 3, 2026), targeting an air defense facility whose construction was recently completed.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News that the operation was a "limited attack." The attack came hours before the US midterm elections.
Trump had stated in early October that he would refrain from launching attacks until the midterm elections were over.
Media reported earlier that there was an attack on targets on the Iranian island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, including a Revolutionary Guard site, after a missile was launched from the island towards an American plane, while it was not clear whether Trump was referring to the same attack.
Media reports recently spoke of plans in Washington to launch more attacks against Iran in cooperation with Israel after the midterm elections.
A US official said that the United States carried out defensive strikes targeting some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state television reported hearing explosions on Qeshm Island.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke Monday evening on condition of anonymity, said the strikes targeted “Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against American assets.”
The strikes, which appeared limited and did not amount to a full resumption of hostilities, came on the eve of the important US midterm elections. US President Donald Trump had previously said that the United States would not launch strikes on Iran before the midterm elections.
The unpopular war on Iran, and its resulting impact on fuel prices in the United States and other sectors of the economy, represented a weak point for Republicans in their efforts to maintain their control over Congress.
US Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters earlier Monday that he had just spoken with Trump about talks with Iran, adding that "the president and I feel very comfortable about the prospects for a negotiated settlement."
