Warning from Iran's hardliners mars celebrations of nuclear deal
|
Version 0 of 1. The reactions of Tehranis from sundry walks of life who swarmed through the streets of the capital to celebrate the nuclear deal in recent days suggest that the Iranian public has experienced a psychological turning point. While uncertainties remain over the future of the economy as well as regional security, happiness is returning to a population that has been forced to withdraw from public space for nearly a decade. After years of domestic political pressure and material strife, Iranians see the Vienna accords as a paradigm shift that will end their country’s pariah status. “This deal will benefit our children,” said child psychologist Mahshid, 40, who participated in this week’s celebrations in Valiasr Square with his 6-year-old son. “They’re the ones who can experience life without daily problems and headaches. Perhaps they can escape the pain we’ve had in the past 10-20 years. Maybe they will never understand what it’s like to live under the shadow of war.” Before the public street celebrations on Tuesday, many Iranians spent hours glued to their televisions listening to the speeches of presidents Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama. “Suddenly we saw Barack Obama on the Islamic republic television station in a live broadcast,” said Mahin, a 58-year-old retired teacher. “Just imagine Iran broadcasting a live speech by the president of the Great Satan. He’s a hero…He believes that having sophisticated weapons is no reason to attack countries and ruin people’s lives like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Related: Sadegh Zibakalam: Anti-Americanism at a 'dead end' in Iran Aside from praise for the negotiating parties, some participants expressed hopes that the nuclear would enable the Rouhani government to address the public’s calls for social freedoms. Hooman, 34, was among a crowd that chanted slogans in support of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the Green Movement leaders under house arrest since 2011. “Starting now, the government should be thinking of political development and democracy,” he said. “If Rouhani can’t do these things, if he doesn’t stand up to the extremists and speak the word of the people, then this agreement was all for nothing.” Although the public widely expects Rouhani to address these demands, there are signs that Iran’s president still faces resistance from his country’s hardline political factions. Many Iranians also worry that institutional corruption will direct the financial benefits of lifted sanctions to the pockets of the ruling elite. Related: What's next for President Rouhani in Iran? “Near the end, some of the elites here were getting fabulously wealthy off the sanctions,” said Gholamreza, a fishmonger on South Karegar Street in south central Tehran. “We have to wait and see whether this money comes in, this oil that they can sell now, and who will profit from it.” As news of a finalized agreement reached Tehran in the morning hours of 14 July, the front pages of most major dailies highlighted the final moments of the negotiations. Economic-focused newspapers analyzed the future shape of the Iranian economy after the lifting of sanctions. Several front-page articles highlighted the potential construction of a gas pipeline to Europe and the resumption of petrochemical exports to the United States. But a handful of dailies dedicated front-page space to another event: on 13 July, a day before the deal was announced, the spokesman for Iran’s judiciary Gholam Hossein Ejei updated journalists on the case of five returning Iranian emigres who were recently arrested for their role in the “sedition” during the disputed 2009 election. Ejei also issued a thinly veiled warning to social media users, stating that illegal activities on social networks had their consequences. He stressed that a number of such activists who were disseminating lies and false claims and disturbing the public opinion were recently detained by the Iranian cyber police. In a 15 July editorial in the reformist daily Shargh, leading Iranian intellectual Sadegh Zibakalam compared the nuclear deal to three other turning points in the history of the Islamic republic: The occupation of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, the start of the Iraq war in 1980, and the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, which galvanized public calls for greater social and political liberties. Zibakalam noted the nuclear deal “may not necessarily bring political advancements and the opening of civil society,” just as the lifting of sanctions in itself won’t fix Iran’s dysfunctional economy. “The cure for our economy is not the lifting of sanctions but the footprints that Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, India, Malaysia and others have taken: Adam Smith’s economic development model,” he wrote. Though it may take years to achieve these goals, most members of the public appear content with the opportunities they believe the nuclear deal will bring. Many expect the lifting of the sanctions to tangibly improve people’s standard of living, even if Iran’s political elite gets richer along the way. “When the government has money, it increases loans and retirement benefits,” said Houshang, a pensioner who participated in the celebrations. “Workers’ salaries improve. People’s pensions improve. The government invests in more jobs….Let’s sell oil and get the money so the government can be in better shape. Everyone’s lives will improve.” |