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Khamenei Warns US Hostility Will Persist Despite Midterm Losses
· Confirmed
In Short: Khamenei’s message was clear: Iran’s response to any renewed US aggression would be on a much greater scale, and the US’s hostility towards Tehran would persist regardless of political changes in America.
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned that any renewed US military attack on Iran would trigger a much stronger response, according to The Whistler Newspaper. Khamenei's statement came in a message released on Wednesday following the Republican Party's defeats in the US midterm elections.
Khamenei emphasized that Iran's response to US aggression would be on a much greater scale, as reported by Central Oregon Daily. He added that Tehran's destruction of US bases in the region and its management of the Strait of Hormuz were part of a campaign against US hegemony.
Al Jazeera reported that Khamenei said anyone expecting a shift in the United States' policy towards Iran is “seriously mistaken.” He noted that the US-Israel war on Iran, which began in February, likely impacted the Republican Party’s poor performance in the elections.
Khamenei praised armed groups allied with Iran across the Middle East, describing their activities as part of the broader regional resistance against American and Israeli influence, according to The Whistler Newspaper.
Khamenei described Iran’s management of the Strait of Hormuz and the elimination of US military bases in regional countries as a reaction to US “aggression and crimes” during the conflict, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Khamenei said Iran’s confrontation with the US had reached a point where “every day and every hour” had become a time of resistance against “the Great Satan,” as reported by Al Jazeera.
Khamenei warned that in the event of repeated transgressions, it would take on much wider dimensions, according to Al Jazeera.
Khamenei said Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz had shattered the “myth of America’s invincibility,” and warned that any renewed US attack would draw a far wider response, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Khamenei struck a “cautious” note on Wednesday, warning that a party shift in the US would not persuade Washington to abandon its hostility against Iran, noted Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas, reporting from Tehran.
Khamenei’s remarks came with diplomatic efforts underway to avert renewed fighting in the war, which was launched by the US and Israel on February 28 in a bid to destabilize Iran’s regime and destroy its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, according to The Times of Israel.
Khamenei, 57, was named supreme leader after US-Israeli strikes at the start of the war killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to The Times of Israel.
Khamenei’s message was echoed by Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with Washington and his country’s parliament speaker, who said, “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” according to Al Jazeera.
Background
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered the armed forces to respond immediately and without geographic limits to any enemy threats.
What's confirmed
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said that anyone expecting a shift in the United States’ policy towards his country is “seriously mistaken”, hours after midterm elections dealt a blow to 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,” Khamenei said in a written statement published on his website.
What's still developing
- “Should such aggressions be repeated, the war’s scope will become much wider,” said Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since he took power in March.