Tehran, Feb 25: As the United States assembles its greatest military firepower in decades in the Middle East, Iranians are warily awaiting the next round of talks with the US in Geneva this week – negotiations that many see as a last chance for their ruling theocracy to strike a deal with President Donald Trump.
Some say the situation feels hopeless. Battered by decades of sanctions, heightened by Trump’s 2018 decision to withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, Iranians also just suffered through the bloodiest crackdown on dissent in the country’s modern history as security forces in January killed thousands of people and detained tens of thousands more.
Now, as they await the outcome of the Geneva talks on Thursday, many fear the outbreak of a war that could surpass Iran’s bloody 1980s conflict with Iraq.
But while that conflict sparked a patriotic response from Iranian volunteers, the prospects of a war with the US have riven a population that still includes hard-line supporters of the country’s theocracy as well as those who feel Iran is splitting at the seams.
“Every morning when I get up, my brain is full of chaos,” said Sepideh Bafarani, a 29-year-old woman who works in a women’s clothing store. “It’s a possible war … and an ongoing bad economic situation.”
Rasool Razzaghi, a 54-year-old resident in Tehran, the Iranian capital, summed up the approaching talks with a similar concern.
“I predict that if both sides really mean what they are saying, a war will start,” he said.