The Iranian People Are Forgotten

By Elliott Abrams

Sunday, June 14, 2026

 

Many aspects of the Iran deal announced on Sunday are unclear, or nonexistent: They will have to be negotiated over the next 60 days. What exactly will happen to the highly enriched uranium in Iran? Is its missile program covered? Will it be allowed to charge tolls in the Strait of Hormuz if it calls them service fees or otherwise hides them? Must it stop arming and financing Hezbollah and Hamas?

 

But one key aspect is now crystal clear: The American agreement with Iran completely abandons the Iranian people.

 

In December and January, Iranians took to the streets again in huge numbers, as they had in 2009 and 2014. In 200 cities, there were significant protests, and they were not limited to university students; in fact, they started with bazaaris — business people. This was a major challenge to the regime. It responded with mass murder, shooting unarmed demonstrators and killing somewhere between 7,000 and 35,000.

 

In response, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!!”

 

But the deal that the United States has now entered with Iran abandons that position and the Iranian people. Last Saturday, Trump again took to Truth Social: “Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous administrations have had . . . . We look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future.” On Sunday, in an interview announcing the deal with the regime, Trump said, “As far as regime change, I never cared about regime change. This is the third group we’ve dealt with, and this is the most rational group yet.”

 

So much for “help is on the way.” This looks instead like the “Venezuela option”: The regime stays in power and is strengthened by the lifting of sanctions and the arrival of new income flows from oil exports. At least in the Venezuelan case, official U.S. policy (reiterated recently in Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s testimony to Congress) calls for a transition to democracy as its final phase — however long-delayed that may be. In the Iran case, U.S. officials never use the word “democracy.” When the president said “I never cared about regime change,” he was being completely honest.

 

This is a strategic error of the greatest importance. It’s obvious to Iranians, and should be to us, that the Islamic Republic is unreformable. Despite Trump’s repeated statements that some new “group” of Iranian officials are more “rational,” Iran’s rulers are the people who murdered thousands of their fellow citizens in cold blood a few months ago and more recently struck at economic and civilian targets of all their Gulf Arab neighbors as well as Israel. There is zero evidence that the brutal repression of the Iranian people will cease.

 

Ignoring that is a strategic error because the only long-run solution to Iran’s aggression and repression is in fact popular sovereignty. The Trump administration argues that its new agreement will change the Middle East, but it will not — because the Islamic Republic will always remain at the heart of the region’s violence and instability. It is folly to think this regime will stop intervening in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and elsewhere. Its ruling elites — who are the same now as they were in January — have shown again and again that “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” are central pillars of their belief system.

 

But the United States, Iran’s neighbors, and Israel have one great ally against the Islamic Republic’s policies: the Iranian people. Their hatred of and opposition to the regime have been demonstrated for decades despite the heavy price they have paid in blood and ruined lives. When the people of Iran can govern themselves, the United States and Iran can be friends and partners.

 

That is what makes President Trump’s line that he “never cared about regime change” so offensive. Compare it with Ronald Reagan’s policy toward the Soviet Union, which never promised to overthrow the regime, but made common cause with those in Russia and the Soviet empire struggling for freedom, offering them moral and political support (“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”) as well as help for organizations like Solidarity and Andrei Sakharov’s Committee on Human Rights in the USSR. To acknowledge our limited ability to help Iranians achieve democracy is one thing; to dismiss their aspirations disdainfully is another, and it is both strategically blind and morally repugnant.

 

We are but weeks away from celebrating our own revolution to gain popular rule. The least the United States should be doing now is letting Iranians know we understand and support their struggle for basic human rights and for democracy.