‘Everyone is angry for different reasons’: scepticism in Iran as peace deal nears

In the rural town of Sirik, in southern Iran, temperatures over the past week have climbed to 45C (113F), and residents were still queueing to fill buckets of water days after US strikes reportedly damaged two drinking water facilities serving nearby villages.Amid water shortages and the looming fear of war came news of a possible deal between the US and Tehran. But for those struggling to pick up the pieces in the aftermath, the announcement brought little relief.A damaged drinking water reservoir in the Bemani area of Hormozgan province. The message on the wall advises residents not to overuse water. Photograph: Rokna Press“I fear the uncertainty surrounding [the peace deal],” said Nahid*, a mother in Sirik, who described how villagers were still queueing with buckets in the punishing heat, worried the water shortages could last far longer. Although the water supply was restored after 12 hours, the amount reaching households remained nowhere near enough for drinking and daily chores.“My four-year-old woke up crying from dehydration and pain between her legs caused by chafing and the lack of water for basic hygiene,” she said.As the sole breadwinner of her family, Nahid, who works as a seamstress, said she feared for her daughter’s health and future.Nahid’s reaction is one of many shared by Iranians across the country as the US and Iran move closer to formally signing a deal.Alborz, 36, a writer based in Tehran, said the situation had left many feeling as though the world was being run “by all the mad men”.“Yesterday, I woke my wife up to tell her that an agreement had been reached – and with very small amounts of concessions. We were overjoyed. At least, we breathed a sigh of relief,” he said.But he added that reactions around him fell into three broad groups: “The group whose hearts are tied to the regime, the second which is tied to [the former royal family] the Pahlavis and therefore looks for foreign military intervention, – and then there’s a third, which despises both of the above.”People in Tehran this week. Photograph: Majid Saeedi/Getty ImagesHe added that, over time, the third group appeared to be growing.For hardliners, who have been rallying almost nightly to celebrate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “victory” and attending training sessions to learn how to use Kalashnikovs, the prospect of a deal with the “enemy” has caused anger, said Mina, a screenwriter based in Tehran.“Everyone is angry right now, but we are all angry for different things. The mullahs have told their followers to chant ‘Death to America’ for decades now, so any deal with the enemy weakens their standing among the followers. And then there are people like me; I hate the regime, and I hate that Trump betrayed us,” she said.“Even though Obama wasn’t on the side of the Iranian people and chose to deal with the ayatollahs, at least he acted like a true politician rather than a businessman. We got what we saw with him. But with Trump, we really have been stabbed in the back,” she said.Mina supports the return of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the former shah, as a “transitional leader” and said she did not believe there would ever be a peace deal with the Iranian regime.She also expressed anger at what she described as an international double standard over Iranian deaths.Relatives of children who were killed in the Minab school bombing mourn at the city’s cemetery in March. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images“The US hitting the school [in which 120 children were killed] was horrific and must be condemned, and my heart goes out to the innocent families killed by the strikes. But why are you all ignoring the children killed just weeks ahead of it on the streets by the regime? Why should we trust your human rights advocacy when you choose to fight only for those that politically match your agenda?” she asked.Although many Iranians had been anxiously awaiting the diplomatic developments, for others the announcement brought little reaction at all.Shaghayegh, 24, who took part in the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Tehran and was injured by pellets to the head, said bluntly: “Everything stopped making sense since 2022.“I doubt the war is anywhere close to the end. The only thing that’s changed is we are more aware of who our allies really are. And it’s getting increasingly clear Trump isn’t one of them.”As scepticism deepens and opinions remain divided, a shared sense of exhaustion – and anger that nothing has really changed – ran through many of the conversations.“I am relieved more innocent people won’t be killed by the US bombs, but can you all now agree that you will go back to your happy European summers – and we can go back to being killed by the regime?” asked Shaghayegh.Alborz warned that the agreement remained fragile and uncertain. “Everyone is talking about how Trump is just buying time until the end of the World Cup,” he said, predicting that “anything could happen in the next month”.* Names have been changed