The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that President Donald Trump has derided as "disastrous" almost from the beginning of his campaign for office — and that members of his administration have with increasing intensity criticized, with national security adviser John Bolton having gone on record as preferring to bomb Iran than negotiate with it — is clearly dead as far as the United States is concerned. With the reimposed US sanctions implemented Nov. 5 — which are designed to be as "crippling" if not more so than the Barack Obama-engineered pre-JCPOA sanctions — the deal is now possibly in its last gasps with the Europeans too. While ordinary Americans might by and large not be mourning or even thinking about it, the accord did once embody the hopes of a generation of young Iranians — paradoxically the very men and women who most admiredly view the United States, its culture and its liberal democracy.
I was recently talking to one such Iranian, an artist and more recent immigrant to the United States whom I had met for the first time. I wondered now that she had a green card if she would become a citizen when she became eligible. “Ordinarily, sure; that would be nice,” she replied half-heartedly. She added, “But I don’t think I’d be happy to be a citizen of a country whose president is this man.” I replied that one could easily have said that about being Iranian during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-13), who was considered, at least by many Iranian youths, to be both uncouth and a national embarrassment. She smiled and said, “Yes, or even the current president.” I was surprised, as it was precisely people like her who had twice enthusiastically voted Hassan Rouhani into office. “Yes,” she continued, “We had such high hopes, and he’s not been able to do anything for anyone.”
