Iran war: Will Trump's midterm defeat end or entrench the conflict with Tehran?

The US midterm elections delivered a historic defeat to President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which lost control of both houses of Congress.

Democrats achieved remarkable victories in traditionally Republican strongholds, including Texas and Kansas, while Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. American newspapers described the outcome as a “blue tsunami” and a political demolition of Trump.

In Tehran, the election results were interpreted as a major political setback for the Trump administration, and a vindication of Iran’s resistance to US-Israeli military pressure. Iran’s top security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The Iranian nation handed Trump a strategic defeat on the battlefield and in the Hormuz - and a POLITICAL DEFEAT in Washington.”