Update XIV from The Iranist

June 5, 2026

Read my Atlantic piece on why the next internet shutdown is inevitable and how direct-to-cell (D2C) offers a promising alternative.

Salam reader,

It appears no final determination was made in the Situation Room on May 29. According to the New York Times, President Donald Trump was “concerned about parts of the potential deal that would include unfreezing funds for the Iranians” and “has also been frustrated by how long it has taken for Iran to respond to US proposals.” There are reportedly no discussions regarding the six Americans detained in Iran (CBS News). The current plan appears to be to first secure a memorandum of understanding (MOU), with the hostages addressed on a separate track afterward. There is also another complication: the ongoing skirmishes between the United States and Iran (Wall Street Journal/Reuters). That said, they don’t appear to be affecting the talks—for now. US Central Command (CENTCOM) has described the tenuous ceasefire as “ongoing.”

Asked whether he would be open to meeting Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, President Trump responded:

“If I did meet with the new Ayatollah, I would be honored to meet him. I would say I’m not his favorite person, but with that being said, he’s probably a pro—I don’t know him—he’s probably a professional in some circles, he has a very good reputation actually, you know, sometimes when people say bad, but a lot of people say bad about me. It’s totally false, of course.” (X)

His comments were inevitable. The US president has spoken in similarly complimentary terms about Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Still, the whiplash has been jarring, particularly for anti-regime Iranians who placed their faith in the United States after the early rhetoric about regime change at the beginning of the war.

One resident of Tehran put it bluntly:

“Was it all for nothing? So many lives were lost. We were willing to die for our freedom - but it turns out that we were played by both governments. All for a few barrels of cheaper oil and gas.” (Daily Mail)

According to US and Iranian officials, one of the remaining sticking points centers on financial compensation. (CNN). Tehran has communicated that some form of compensation be included in the agreement. Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to the Supreme Leader, has claimed Iran is seeking access to $24 billion in frozen assets: $12 billion to be released upon signing the MOU and another $12 billion at a later stage (CNN). Rezaei said, “The negotiations are at a deadlock and [President Donald] Trump must break this deadlock. The ball is in Trump’s court.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s economy continues to worsen. This week, the Central Bank of Iran reported that the consumer price index reached 77.2 percent, while inflation in daily necessities rose 113.8 percent compared to May of last year (AP). A private Iranian economic think tank described the figures as “an unprecedented rate since World War II.”

It’s easy to see why Tehran is seeking access to its frozen funds. Yet given the Islamic Republic’s long record of systemic corruption and mismanagement, there is little reason to believe that ordinary Iranians would experience a trickle-down economic effect that would significantly improve their lives.

Now with the internet partially restored, more testimonies from political prisoners and journalists of the brutal post-war crackdown are starting to trickle out (The Guardian). Journalist Vida Rabbani spoke of the sexual assault and repeated beatings she endured while imprisoned for signing a statement condemning the massacre of anti-regime protesters in January and calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. She said, “They have a way to torture you without leaving a visible trace. But now I can’t sleep and have to take antidepressants and sleeping pills.”

Amnesty International warned that “Iranian authorities are using the cover of what they call ‘wartime conditions’ to intensify their repression of dissent through mass arbitrary arrests, accelerated grossly unfair judicial proceedings, politically motivated executions, harsh prison sentences, and asset confiscations.” Among those targeted this week was Masoud Payahoo, the man who recorded the viral video of Iran’s “Tank Man” during the December-January protests. He was sentenced to ten years in prison on allegations of cooperating with Israel (Iran International). There have been at least 41 politically motivated executions since the war began on February 28 (X). Among those executed were Mehrdad Mohammadinia and Ashkan Maleki, two individuals arrested during the January protests who were hanged on June 1 (Instagram).

Separate from the situation with Iran, I’ve been thinking about the legacy of French-Iranian cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, 56, who passed away this week (New York Times). A tireless advocate for the Iranian people and author of the acclaimed graphic novel “Persepolis,” Satrapi’s work has become the subject of renewed debate online, with some critics labeling it “Orientalist.”

by Kianoush (Instagram)

Nahid Siamdoust, assistant professor of media and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas at Austin, pushed back on that characterization, arguing that the critique itself is Orientalist “because it doesn’t afford Iranians—or an Iranian like her—the right to represent herself freely of those kinds of considerations, of that Western gaze.” (New Lines Magazine) She noted that “Satrapi spoke very much from her own personal experience. But it also was representative of the experience of so many Iranians.”

If you haven’t seen the Oscar-nominated animated film “Persepolis,” I highly recommend it—or better yet, read the graphic novel. Satrapi also authored several other outstanding works, including one inspired by the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.

I’ll leave you with one of her most memorable observations:

“…The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.” (Good Reads)

(Don’t take that last line too literally.)

More soon,

Holly

P.S. Feel free to follow me on X for real-time updates and on LinkedIn, where I’ve been sharing additional interviews and commentary.