Iran’s Ghalibaf says US midterm voters rejected the war

Iran’s chief negotiator Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said Americans had rejected war in Tuesday’s US midterm elections. In a post on X after the vote, he backed what he called their “no to war” message.

Ghalibaf, who also chairs Iran’s parliament, warned Washington against defying that message. He said doing so would bring a “nightmare”. His comments followed the defeat of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

In Spain, the Ministry for Ecological Transition recorded average petrol prices of €1.712 a litre on the fourth of November. Diesel averaged €1.892. Those figures provide a snapshot of prices, rather than a forecast of what drivers will pay next.

Trump and his allies have linked the Republican losses to the conflict and fuel costs. But the reports give different accounts of his emphasis.

CBS News reported that Trump accepted the war had probably helped cause the defeat, chiefly through petrol prices. Euronews quoted him as blaming petrol costs rather than the war itself. Trump said he would still make the same choice to attack Iran, CBS reported.

Vice President JD Vance blamed the war for the losses in a post on X.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that the conflict should end. He raised the prospect of using Congress’s power over funds to press for that outcome.

Democratic congressman Jason Crow also called for an end to the war. He told CBS that Congress could cut its funding. That remains a possible course of action, rather than a funding cut already passed.

Trump told CBS that the conflict would end “when I say it ends”. He has warned that the US and Israel could resume full-scale war if no deal is reached.

Talks held through intermediaries have stalled for months, the BBC reported. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqai said Qatar’s mediation still rests on a plan Tehran put forward in September.

Baqai said the seven-step proposal had been shortened so it could be carried out in two days. President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that his government was seeking a solution through talks. He warned that renewed war would benefit no one.