Hours after Republican losses in the US midterms became clear, crowds in Tehran burned a giant banner showing Donald Trump, JD Vance, envoy Steve Witkoff and Benjamin Netanyahu. Officials cast the vote as a rebuke of Trump's war on Iran. Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said America's decline had sped up. State television even aired a staged mock hanging of Trump.

Away from the rallies, many Iranians describe dread rather than triumph. A Tehran journalist said people feel trapped in a strange limbo, looking to Washington and Jerusalem for change while the economy worsens and daily life grows harsher. Some fear that, with no re election race left for Trump, he could escalate again. Others think another full scale war is less likely after the ballot shock. Almost all agree the security state at home will not ease.

A rights monitor based in Oslo says Iranian authorities have executed at least 696 people this year. Residents speak of shops still open while real purchases shrink, of families debating heaters in case infrastructure is hit again, and of a prison machine that kept running through earlier fighting. A medic in central Iran argued outsiders still underestimate the Revolutionary Guard's loyalty and competence, and that a system able to absorb sanctions can also turn that force on its own people.

The mood on the street is preparation for the worst with little faith that European leaders will press the case of those still being arrested and killed. Celebrations by hardliners, one resident said, look like relief that the ruling structure has found room to survive.