After the midterm election rout, Trump changes his tune: "Locked and loaded, but not necessarily pulling the trigger"; strikes on Iran put on hold, oil prices fall.

Title context: After the midterm election rout, Trump changes his tune: "Locked and loaded, but not necessarily pulling the trigger"; strikes on Iran put on hold, oil prices fall. Text: US President Donald Trump said he has no plans to strike Iran immediately after the midterm elections, in which the Democrats defeated his Republican Party by a landslide to seize control of Congress. Speaking to British media about the state of the war, Trump said: "We seem to be getting everything we want." But he added that the US remained ready to escalate the conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran if necessary. "I'm ready, we're all ready. If we need to act, we're 'locked and loaded,' but there may be no reason to act at all." Trump subsequently said the Iran war, now in its ninth month, was not the main reason for the Republicans' crushing defeat even though polls consistently showed Americans opposed the conflict and were unhappy about the resulting surge in oil prices. In an interview with US media, Trump said: "People understand the necessity of what I did with Iran. The world's number one state sponsor of terrorism cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. You have to know, that is the most dangerous country in the world, and we have virtually destroyed its power. This war is not over yet maybe I'll finish it, maybe I won't." Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament and a senior negotiator with the US, said the midterm results showed the American people had cast a vote "saying no to war." In a comment on X, Ghalibaf said that if the US did choose to resume large-scale strikes on Iran, it would face a "nightmare." Although Trump and officials including Vice President JD Vance adopted a slightly softer tone toward Iran this week, weighing on oil prices, tensions between the two warring sides remain high. Tehran has said it is ready at any time to respond to strikes and will retaliate fiercely. Oil prices fall on signs of US-Iran diplomatic progress Anxious Gulf Arab states are calling on Trump to give diplomacy more time. US allies the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were attacked thousands of times by Iranian drones and missiles during the most intense phase of the war between late February and early April, before the ceasefire. Iran-US talks mediated by Qatar and Pakistan have made little progress in recent weeks. However, media reported on Tuesday that Qatari officials expect to receive feedback from both sides on a new proposal within the next day or two. Differences remain on many issues: Iran wants the US to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, while Washington is seeking concessions from Tehran on nuclear activity. Oil prices fell on Wednesday, with Brent crude at $104 a barrel, well below last week's closing price of about $118, though still up 70% this year, mainly due to the war and its impact on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and LNG supplies normally pass. This week, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had granted his government greater authority to advance peace talks. Pezeshkian said this could include issues Tehran had previously regarded as "non-negotiable." The war began in late February when the US and Israel struck targets in Iran and killed senior officials including former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. US officials initially spoke of the war lasting no more than four to six weeks, but Trump has grown increasingly impatient with Iran's resilience. Tehran, for its part, has sown chaos in the Persian Gulf region and the wider Middle East through its counterattacks. Rising fuel costs US diesel prices at a record high and average gasoline prices above $4 a gallon were a major factor in turning the American public against the conflict.