US-Iran deal ends 100-day military campaign, leaving Iranians bitter and GOP silent
The signing of a US-Iran protocol agreement has been met with a mix of bitter relief in Tehran, silence from congressional Republicans, and alarm in Israel, which fears the deal merely postpones the nuclear question.
A peace without celebrations
More than a hundred days of US and Israeli military operations against Iran have given way to a protocol agreement, signed on 16 June, that both Tehran and Washington are calling a victory. The deal halts the bombing campaign but does not address the underlying regime change that many Iranians had hoped for. On the streets and in the diaspora, the mood is far from triumphant.
Iranians' dashed hopes
For Iranians who endured the strikes, the accord tastes of ashes. One exile, an Iranian national living in France for decades under the pseudonym Hassan, told Le Parisien that the war had been bearable only because it carried the promise of toppling the regime.
This war was only interesting insofar as it gave us hope of seeing the regime change. The dead were easier to accept with that prospect. Today, we realize these deaths served no purpose.
An internet user in Tehran, quoted by Le Soir as the country's web connectivity slowly returns, voiced the same despair.
Many things have ended, except our pain, our suffering, and our wounds. Dreams and hopes have burned and will not return.
Israel's nuclear fears
Israel, which did not take part in the negotiations, is watching the agreement with deep anxiety. Le Figaro reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fears the deal simply pushes the Iranian nuclear file into a later phase, without resolving it. The Israeli government had long argued that military pressure was necessary to force a definitive settlement, and now sees that leverage evaporating.
Republican unease
On Capitol Hill, the reaction was notably subdued. The Republican wing in Congress greeted the signing with what Le Figaro describes as an awkward silence. The accord, brokered by a Republican administration, leaves the party's hawks caught between loyalty and their conviction that any pact with Tehran is a surrender. President Donald Trump has yet to face a full-scale internal revolt, but the quiet is thick with tension.
