1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,050 2 00:00:02,050 --> 00:00:04,330 DORSA JABBARI: November 2016-- 3 00:00:04,330 --> 00:00:07,240 Iranians woke up to the news of a new President-elect 4 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:10,300 in Washington not paying much attention to how 5 00:00:10,300 --> 00:00:12,580 he could change their lives. 6 00:00:12,580 --> 00:00:14,980 As soon as the US president took office, 7 00:00:14,980 --> 00:00:18,700 his first order of business was the Muslim ban, which meant 8 00:00:18,700 --> 00:00:21,880 no more visas for Iranians. 9 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:24,820 Six months earlier, it was a much different story 10 00:00:24,820 --> 00:00:27,220 as Iran signed a major nuclear agreement 11 00:00:27,220 --> 00:00:30,700 with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council-- 12 00:00:30,700 --> 00:00:33,940 China, France, Russia, the US, and the United Kingdom, 13 00:00:33,940 --> 00:00:36,160 plus Germany. 14 00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:39,430 Iran's relationship with Western powers, including the US, 15 00:00:39,430 --> 00:00:41,020 had never been better. 16 00:00:41,020 --> 00:00:43,870 There was hope that the nuclear deal would allow Iran 17 00:00:43,870 --> 00:00:46,390 to rejoin the world economy. 18 00:00:46,390 --> 00:00:49,630 Then in May of 2018, Donald Trump 19 00:00:49,630 --> 00:00:52,960 announced the United States was leaving the nuclear agreement 20 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,570 because, in his words, "it's not a good deal 21 00:00:55,570 --> 00:00:58,480 at all for Americans." 22 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:01,000 The Iranian leadership quickly condemned the withdrawal 23 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:02,890 and urged the remaining signatories 24 00:01:02,890 --> 00:01:06,100 to abide by their commitments to the deal. 25 00:01:06,100 --> 00:01:08,860 And in November two years ago, the United States 26 00:01:08,860 --> 00:01:11,770 imposed the most stringent sanctions on Iran. 27 00:01:11,770 --> 00:01:13,810 No one was allowed to buy Iranian oil 28 00:01:13,810 --> 00:01:15,730 except eight countries which were heavily 29 00:01:15,730 --> 00:01:18,730 reliant on it, including Iraq. 30 00:01:18,730 --> 00:01:21,460 More sanctions followed in what the United States called 31 00:01:21,460 --> 00:01:24,100 its maximum pressure campaign in an attempt 32 00:01:24,100 --> 00:01:26,230 to bring Iran back to the negotiating 33 00:01:26,230 --> 00:01:28,660 table for a new nuclear deal, which 34 00:01:28,660 --> 00:01:32,810 would include the Iranian ballistic missile program. 35 00:01:32,810 --> 00:01:35,250 But the commander in chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 36 00:01:35,250 --> 00:01:38,550 said that the time for negotiating was over. 37 00:01:38,550 --> 00:01:39,550 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] 38 00:01:39,550 --> 00:01:40,350 39 00:01:40,350 --> 00:01:41,610 INTERPRETER: The reason why I say 40 00:01:41,610 --> 00:01:44,820 we will not negotiate with the US is that it is pointless. 41 00:01:44,820 --> 00:01:47,400 Of course they will benefit from negotiations. 42 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,580 They say that we should forsake our defense capabilities and 43 00:01:50,580 --> 00:01:52,500 a regional and national power. 44 00:01:52,500 --> 00:01:53,970 Well, this is not possible. 45 00:01:53,970 --> 00:01:56,580 An honorable person who is interested in preserving 46 00:01:56,580 --> 00:01:59,850 the country's interests will not give in to these demands. 47 00:01:59,850 --> 00:02:02,220 This is the reason why I am against negotiating 48 00:02:02,220 --> 00:02:03,960 with the US. 49 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,090 DORSA JABBARI: As tensions reached an all-time high, 50 00:02:06,090 --> 00:02:08,130 on January the 3rd, President Trump 51 00:02:08,130 --> 00:02:10,680 ordered a drone strike which killed Major General 52 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,510 Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. 53 00:02:12,510 --> 00:02:14,970 Iranian leaders all vowed revenge 54 00:02:14,970 --> 00:02:17,670 and described the killing of the top military commander 55 00:02:17,670 --> 00:02:20,190 as an act of war. 56 00:02:20,190 --> 00:02:23,370 Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched over a dozen missiles 57 00:02:23,370 --> 00:02:26,400 at a US base in Iraq, but no American personnel 58 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:28,800 were killed in the attack. 59 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,800 As the US elections approached, Iranian state TV 60 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:35,370 broadcast the presidential debates though officially 61 00:02:35,370 --> 00:02:38,850 Iran's position is one of ambivalence towards whomever 62 00:02:38,850 --> 00:02:40,470 occupies the White House next. 63 00:02:40,470 --> 00:02:42,510 HAMED MOUSAVI: I think if Donald Trump is re-elected, 64 00:02:42,510 --> 00:02:44,760 we are pretty much going to have the same as what 65 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:46,530 we had in the past four years. 66 00:02:46,530 --> 00:02:50,220 And that is going to be a lot of hostility and contention 67 00:02:50,220 --> 00:02:52,530 between the two countries and perhaps 68 00:02:52,530 --> 00:02:54,450 even a military confrontation. 69 00:02:54,450 --> 00:02:56,260 If Joe Biden wins the election, I 70 00:02:56,260 --> 00:02:58,950 think the situation is going to be more complicated, more 71 00:02:58,950 --> 00:03:01,410 unpredictable, in the sense that there 72 00:03:01,410 --> 00:03:05,100 is the potential of reaching a deal between the two countries. 73 00:03:05,100 --> 00:03:06,450 DORSA JABBARI: For ordinary Iranians, 74 00:03:06,450 --> 00:03:10,330 it is the economy and the value of the real that matters most, 75 00:03:10,330 --> 00:03:13,200 which is at an all-time low while inflation 76 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,480 is at an all-time high-- 77 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:17,370 all byproducts of what the government 78 00:03:17,370 --> 00:03:20,070 calls economic terrorism. 79 00:03:20,070 --> 00:03:22,850 This is the former US embassy in Tehran. 80 00:03:22,850 --> 00:03:26,310 And it's been 41 years since students stormed these walls 81 00:03:26,310 --> 00:03:32,160 and took 52 US diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. 82 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:33,660 They were demanding the US government 83 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:35,400 return the Shah of Iran who was there 84 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:37,570 receiving cancer treatment. 85 00:03:37,570 --> 00:03:38,820 Now it's been over four decades. 86 00:03:38,820 --> 00:03:41,760 And those feelings of hostilities and lack of trust 87 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,630 are still visible on these walls as these new murals show just 88 00:03:45,630 --> 00:03:48,810 how little has changed between Iran and the United States 89 00:03:48,810 --> 00:03:52,630 since the revolution of 1979. 90 00:03:52,630 --> 00:03:56,020 Dorsa Jabbari, Al Jazeera, Tehran.