// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Iran's chief negotiator says Americans voted 'no to war'
Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran "endorsed" the message sent by American voters
Iran's chief negotiator in talks with the US has said that Americans have "said NO TO WAR", after President Donald Trump's Republican Party suffered a stunning defeat in the midterm elections.
"We endorse this message," parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X.
"If the US [government] betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare," he warned.
Trump acknowledged on Tuesday that the poor results for Republican congressional candidates were partly due to the war and the related surge in petrol prices. But he insisted that he did not regret launching a joint attack with Israel on Iran in February.
He told the BBC's US partner, CBS News, that the conflict would end "when I say it ends".
In recent weeks, the president has warned that the US and Israel could return to all-out war after the midterms if a deal to end the conflict cannot be reached with Iran.
Also on Wednesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said four oil tankers caught fire after hitting naval sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC said two of the vessels were still burning, and two additional tankers had been intercepted, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. It said they were trying to travel through a prohibited southern route in the Strait of Hormuz.
The BBC has not independently verified the IRGC's claims.