CNN:
Iranian hardliners who believe Tehran has already emerged victorious in its war with the United States are seizing on President Donald Trump’s midterm losses to demand that he pay a steeper price for an exit from the conflict: a “new world order” that favors the Islamic Republic.
The influential group of conservatives intensified their rhetoric this week, publicly demanding that Washington not be offered compromises in ongoing negotiations.
After the midterm elections saw Trump’s Republican Party suffer a major defeat, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned in a message Wednesday against the “slightest inclination towards submission” – a caution hardliners believe was directed to Iran’s negotiators.
Trump acknowledged in a call with Fox News that the war in Iran was partly to blame for the Republicans’ midterm losses but Vice President JD Vance was more explicit, saying in a lengthy X post Wednesday that “the reason we lost is the war.”
Those admissions appear to have galvanized Iranian hardliners with conservative politicians and media outlets celebrating Trump’s midterm loss as a win for Iran. A hardline outlet, Raja News, published a column saying the US should not be given a “way out” before it “pays the price” for attacking Iran, and Trump should not be allowed to “escape with a rushed agreement.”
“The achievements of the Iranian people and the capital gained… should not be undermined by providing a way out for the other side,” the columnist wrote Wednesday. “The only way to avert the shadow of war is to increase power, maximize pressure on the US and energy prices, and make the enemy regret its actions.”
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