In the preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran that seeks to end the current conflict, the concerns of the Iranian people are missing.
Think back to when the Iranian people – shopkeepers, students, lawyers, mothers and fathers – took to the streets, asking for change in December and January. Over a series of weeks, brave women stood against the regime’s guns, families gathered on streetcorners, and doctors risked everything to treat the injured. Credible estimates indicate over 20,000 people died in those protests at the hand of the Iranian regime.
President Donald Trump himself recognized the moment, sending a series of messages via his social media platform and pledging U.S. support. When the joint U.S.-Israeli operations truly launched, on Feb. 28, the Iranian people waited with bated breath.
They are still waiting.
And now, today, the general outline of the deal is clear in the publicly released text, even if the details aren’t. The new agreement between the United States and Iran reflects some important points, including a recommitment by Iran that it will not seek a nuclear weapon – the same pledge made in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear agreement Iran signed with the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
The re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz is a boon to oil flow, the stemming of which disproportionately impacted low- and middle-income countries but also fertilizer supplies, incredibly important as Africa and South Asia enter the peak of planting season.
Other evergreen concerns, including the Iranian ballistic missile and drone program and Iran’s support to vicious proxy organizations that destabilize their neighbors, were not addressed and now, under the terms of the agreement, may not be under the negotiation’s current parameters.
And human rights for the Iranian people are simply not mentioned.
The overarching imperative of the next steps in the negotiations, which will be addressed in a final agreement hammered out over the next 60 days, is simple. In addition to addressing the national security concerns, it must be grounded in the conditions of the Iranian people.
While these negotiations continue on the reported path to a full accord, the people of Iran – 92 million of them, mothers and fathers, grandparents, and children – continue to live under a regime that denies basic rights, stifles and monitors communication, and imposes repressive regulations dictating gatherings, speech, dress, and travel.
As President Bush said in his second inaugural address in 2004: “There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.”
The Iranian people have shown such incredible bravery in fighting for their basic human rights – from the 2009 Green Movement to periodic protests from 2017 to 2019 on unemployment and fuel prices to the 2022-2023 Woman, Life, Freedom protests that shined a light on the violence of the regime.
The regime has single-mindedly cracked down on all these movements, using every lever of violence – cutting communication, arresting and imprisoning leaders, murder, and torture. The United States’ Human Rights Reports have long documented the travesty of conditions under the regime: state-sponsored killing and disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrest, and transnational repression.
And yet, the Iranian people still rise.
The United States can center human rights – freedom of assembly and speech and due process – in the final accord. We know what the Iranian people face; we have documented the crimes. And now we have the ability to ensure that these provisions are on the table in future agreements in exchange for things the regime desperately wants, such as sanctions relief and asset unfreezing.
There are other steps we can take, too.
The United States should reinvest in Radio Farda, the Fasi-language service hosted by Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty. Access to credible, fact-based information is critical for any citizenry, and especially vital for those who have suffered under autocracy.
Similarly, Iranian citizens’ unfettered access to the internet – unhampered by the regime’s censors – would open the door for commerce and communication as well as reporting, information sharing, and organizing. While the regime will certainly consider this free flow of information a threat, as it has before, the United States could condition specific sanctions relief on this verified provision.
Additionally, the United States can frontload and robustly support citizen-based engagement with the people of Iran.
If this agreement is to be a turning point in Iran’s relations with its neighbors and the United States, the Iranian people deserve to have a voice in this progress.
While initiatives similar to the exchange programs that the United States nurtured during the Cold War may be a step too far, the goal of mutual understanding is not. An open internet will help, but structured virtual exchanges, educational programming, and access to academics and analysts would be an enormous boon to the people of Iran — and to the West’s understanding of the Iranian people.
President Trump has spoken directly to the Iranian people before. As the United States works through the mechanics of what may be a bumpy 60-day negotiation period, the dreams of these 92 million people who have endured 47 years of tyrannical rule should be at the center.
