I remain deeply skeptical that Iran is willing to accept any deal worthy of the name, despite the best efforts of U.S. negotiators.
President Trump may soon conclude that reopening the Strait requires military action and a dramatic intensification of Operation Economic Fury.
Just as important, he should recognize that the greatest pressure point is not the regime itself but the Iranian people. He needs to provide them maximum support in their effort to overthrow it.
RIP Marjane Satrapi, a brilliant mind and a wonderful soul, gone far too soon. Like many Iranians she remained dedicated to her homeland despite decades in exile:
“I call Iran home because no matter how long I live in France, and despite the fact that I feel also French after all these years, to me the word ‘home’ has only one meaning: Iran.”
“No matter how much I am in love with Paris and its indescribable beauty, Tehran with all its ugliness will in my eyes forever be the ‘bride’ of all cities around the world.”
https://t.co/yu63M4aorC
@AOC@jpodhoretz Customs, ha! Perhaps you could discuss the impact of this custom in Afghanistan or Iran? You’re the representative of New York, right? Many Afghans and Iranians live in New York.
Hello @AOC, while you smiled in a hijab at a New York event, I was in Federal Court facing the 4th hitman hired by the Islamic Republic to assassinate me, for campaigning for Iranian women to have the same freedom you performed for a photo op. Will you come to court with me in August when I face the 5th hitman? Or does solidarity only work when it doesn't offend the Islamic regime?
You wore hijab voluntarily in New York. Women are killed in Iran for taking it off.
You are the very woman who, at every opportunity, protests against violence against women, decries gender segregation, and champions "inclusion." Yet here you stand, smiling and wearing a hijab, at an event in New York, in the heart of the West, where men and women are strictly separated. To me and millions of Iranian women, this does not look like a choice. It is no longer "My body, my choice," but rather "My body for votes."
They who claim to fight for women's self-determination in the name of feminism voluntarily embrace an ideology that mandates our women cover their hair simply because they are women. They enjoy the prosperity, freedom, and privileges of the Western world, where they may live as autonomous individuals , yet they simultaneously accept that other women should not be afforded the same rights.
#LetUsTalk
As Iranians slowly regain limited access to the internet, authorities have now proven that they can disconnect 90+ million people from the global internet for nearly 3 months, censor and isolate an entire population, bankrupt thousands, and face zero international consequences.
Iran’s regime went into this war facing political and economic crises. War has made these worse.
Saving the regime now with an economic bailout would be the real betrayal—of the U.S. interest even more than the Iranian people.
WSJ editorial:
https://t.co/ewgeRqYTeq
I supported the strike on the terrorist regime in Iran. And I would still support a coherent effort to remove that malignant cancer and free Iran’s people. But don’t pretend Trump cares about any of that or anything other than himself. He thought this was an easy win.
@citrinowicz Many Iranians, including people in my family and social circle, want the same thing: to stop living under the regime’s revolutionary ideology. The idea that only Israel wants fundamental change ignores what many ordinary Iranians have wanted for decades
@citrinowicz Many Iranians, including people in my family and social circle, want the same thing: to stop living under the regime’s revolutionary ideology. The idea that only Israel wants fundamental change ignores what many ordinary Iranians have wanted for decades
The situation has become far more complicated.
It was easier to envision a deal with Ali Khamenei. He was an aging leader who, traditionally, was deeply cautious about the use of force and prolonged conflict, but he was also highly centralized, meaning that ultimately everything depended on his approval. The positions his representatives presented in Geneva were likely very close to the outer limits of what he himself was prepared to accept.
What emerged instead is a far more radical and decentralized system, increasingly dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a younger, more hardline leadership driven by revenge and ideological rigidity.
But responsibility also lies with those who managed the negotiations on behalf of the administration in Geneva. It is doubtful they fully understood the limits of Iranian strategic culture, and they appear to have overestimated the extent to which the war would push Tehran toward meaningful concessions.
At this stage, the regime arguably feels even more confident in its positions than it did before the war because, in its own narrative, it survived and therefore prevailed.
Ali Khamenei was probably the leader with whom a deal was still possible. Now the challenge is significantly greater.
And from an Israeli perspective, one thing remains certain: Israel will oppose virtually any agreement because the kind of deal Israel ultimately seeks is not merely nuclear restraint, but a fundamental abandonment of the regime’s revolutionary ideology, and that is almost certainly not going to happen.
#iran
https://t.co/czhn0r0GLN
عرفان خادم، دانشجوی نخبهی ۲۱ سالهی مهندسی برق دانشگاه صنعتی آریامهر (شریف) از دو هفته پیش توسط جمهوری اسلامی ربوده شده و هنوز اطلاعی از او در دست نیست. عرفان با معدل بالای ۱۹ جزو بُرد (۱۰ نفر اول) دانشکدهی مهندسی برق است.
طبق اطلاع تشکلهای صنفی و دانشجویی دانشگاه، خبر بازداشت او به دلیل فشار مزدوران امنیتی جمهوری اسلامی بر خانوادهاش تاکنون منتشر نشدهبود و حتی نزدیکترین دوستانش هم از ربودهشدن او بیاطلاع بودند.
جمهوری اسلامی بقای خود را در سرکوب مردم ایران، بهخصوص دانشجویان و نخبگان میداند تا به غارت ثروت مردم ایران ادامه دهد.
رسول جلیلی، جلاد اینترنت، که اینستاگرام و تلگرام را معادل F35 آمریکا نامید، با لابیگری با استادان ایرانی خارج کشور به دنبال اخذ پذیرش «دانشگاه استنفورد آمریکا» برای دخترش بود. دخترش در کانادا تحصیل کرد و خودش هم در آمریکا فرصت مطالعاتی گذراند.
این چهرهی کریه جمهوری اسلامی است.
Building takes decades. Destroying takes days. Stability requires hundreds of billions of dollars in defense, intelligence, and cybersecurity. Instability can be achieved with $20K drones. My @TheAtlantic essay on Iran, the UAE, and the global economy. https://t.co/LagP2TWdiv
“I used to dismiss what I thought was an urban myth that, to help sell Tehran on the nuke deal, President Barack Obama granted thousands of Iranian spies a backdoor path to residence and ultimately citizenship in the United States,” writes @TherouxPeter https://t.co/YuiacSdc5J
The Islamic Republic of Iran spends billions to silence its own citizens while aggressively fueling antisemitic conspiracies abroad. The attacks on @BarakRavid are not organic, but a massive state-funded investment in hate, as documented by @ISDglobal https://t.co/r38BLBNCrv.
It was just a matter of time until the Antisemites come out of their filthy holes and join the campaign of lies against me. The classic tropes: Mossad, controlling the world, trying to make money. Decent people here should come out publicly against this kind of hate