WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.050 --> 00:00:04.330 align:middle line:90% DORSA JABBARI: November 2016-- 00:00:04.330 --> 00:00:07.240 align:middle line:84% Iranians woke up to the news of a new President-elect 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:10.300 align:middle line:84% in Washington not paying much attention to how 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:12.580 align:middle line:90% he could change their lives. 00:00:12.580 --> 00:00:14.980 align:middle line:84% As soon as the US president took office, 00:00:14.980 --> 00:00:18.700 align:middle line:84% his first order of business was the Muslim ban, which meant 00:00:18.700 --> 00:00:21.880 align:middle line:90% no more visas for Iranians. 00:00:21.880 --> 00:00:24.820 align:middle line:84% Six months earlier, it was a much different story 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:27.220 align:middle line:84% as Iran signed a major nuclear agreement 00:00:27.220 --> 00:00:30.700 align:middle line:84% with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council-- 00:00:30.700 --> 00:00:33.940 align:middle line:84% China, France, Russia, the US, and the United Kingdom, 00:00:33.940 --> 00:00:36.160 align:middle line:90% plus Germany. 00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:39.430 align:middle line:84% Iran's relationship with Western powers, including the US, 00:00:39.430 --> 00:00:41.020 align:middle line:90% had never been better. 00:00:41.020 --> 00:00:43.870 align:middle line:84% There was hope that the nuclear deal would allow Iran 00:00:43.870 --> 00:00:46.390 align:middle line:90% to rejoin the world economy. 00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:49.630 align:middle line:84% Then in May of 2018, Donald Trump 00:00:49.630 --> 00:00:52.960 align:middle line:84% announced the United States was leaving the nuclear agreement 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:55.570 align:middle line:84% because, in his words, "it's not a good deal 00:00:55.570 --> 00:00:58.480 align:middle line:90% at all for Americans." 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:01.000 align:middle line:84% The Iranian leadership quickly condemned the withdrawal 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:02.890 align:middle line:84% and urged the remaining signatories 00:01:02.890 --> 00:01:06.100 align:middle line:84% to abide by their commitments to the deal. 00:01:06.100 --> 00:01:08.860 align:middle line:84% And in November two years ago, the United States 00:01:08.860 --> 00:01:11.770 align:middle line:84% imposed the most stringent sanctions on Iran. 00:01:11.770 --> 00:01:13.810 align:middle line:84% No one was allowed to buy Iranian oil 00:01:13.810 --> 00:01:15.730 align:middle line:84% except eight countries which were heavily 00:01:15.730 --> 00:01:18.730 align:middle line:90% reliant on it, including Iraq. 00:01:18.730 --> 00:01:21.460 align:middle line:84% More sanctions followed in what the United States called 00:01:21.460 --> 00:01:24.100 align:middle line:84% its maximum pressure campaign in an attempt 00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:26.230 align:middle line:84% to bring Iran back to the negotiating 00:01:26.230 --> 00:01:28.660 align:middle line:84% table for a new nuclear deal, which 00:01:28.660 --> 00:01:32.810 align:middle line:84% would include the Iranian ballistic missile program. 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:35.250 align:middle line:84% But the commander in chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:38.550 align:middle line:84% said that the time for negotiating was over. 00:01:38.550 --> 00:01:39.550 align:middle line:90% [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] 00:01:39.550 --> 00:01:40.350 align:middle line:90% 00:01:40.350 --> 00:01:41.610 align:middle line:84% INTERPRETER: The reason why I say 00:01:41.610 --> 00:01:44.820 align:middle line:84% we will not negotiate with the US is that it is pointless. 00:01:44.820 --> 00:01:47.400 align:middle line:84% Of course they will benefit from negotiations. 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.580 align:middle line:84% They say that we should forsake our defense capabilities and 00:01:50.580 --> 00:01:52.500 align:middle line:90% a regional and national power. 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:53.970 align:middle line:90% Well, this is not possible. 00:01:53.970 --> 00:01:56.580 align:middle line:84% An honorable person who is interested in preserving 00:01:56.580 --> 00:01:59.850 align:middle line:84% the country's interests will not give in to these demands. 00:01:59.850 --> 00:02:02.220 align:middle line:84% This is the reason why I am against negotiating 00:02:02.220 --> 00:02:03.960 align:middle line:90% with the US. 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:06.090 align:middle line:84% DORSA JABBARI: As tensions reached an all-time high, 00:02:06.090 --> 00:02:08.130 align:middle line:84% on January the 3rd, President Trump 00:02:08.130 --> 00:02:10.680 align:middle line:84% ordered a drone strike which killed Major General 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:12.510 align:middle line:90% Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. 00:02:12.510 --> 00:02:14.970 align:middle line:84% Iranian leaders all vowed revenge 00:02:14.970 --> 00:02:17.670 align:middle line:84% and described the killing of the top military commander 00:02:17.670 --> 00:02:20.190 align:middle line:90% as an act of war. 00:02:20.190 --> 00:02:23.370 align:middle line:84% Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched over a dozen missiles 00:02:23.370 --> 00:02:26.400 align:middle line:84% at a US base in Iraq, but no American personnel 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:28.800 align:middle line:90% were killed in the attack. 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:31.800 align:middle line:84% As the US elections approached, Iranian state TV 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:35.370 align:middle line:84% broadcast the presidential debates though officially 00:02:35.370 --> 00:02:38.850 align:middle line:84% Iran's position is one of ambivalence towards whomever 00:02:38.850 --> 00:02:40.470 align:middle line:90% occupies the White House next. 00:02:40.470 --> 00:02:42.510 align:middle line:84% HAMED MOUSAVI: I think if Donald Trump is re-elected, 00:02:42.510 --> 00:02:44.760 align:middle line:84% we are pretty much going to have the same as what 00:02:44.760 --> 00:02:46.530 align:middle line:90% we had in the past four years. 00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:50.220 align:middle line:84% And that is going to be a lot of hostility and contention 00:02:50.220 --> 00:02:52.530 align:middle line:84% between the two countries and perhaps 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:54.450 align:middle line:90% even a military confrontation. 00:02:54.450 --> 00:02:56.260 align:middle line:84% If Joe Biden wins the election, I 00:02:56.260 --> 00:02:58.950 align:middle line:84% think the situation is going to be more complicated, more 00:02:58.950 --> 00:03:01.410 align:middle line:84% unpredictable, in the sense that there 00:03:01.410 --> 00:03:05.100 align:middle line:84% is the potential of reaching a deal between the two countries. 00:03:05.100 --> 00:03:06.450 align:middle line:84% DORSA JABBARI: For ordinary Iranians, 00:03:06.450 --> 00:03:10.330 align:middle line:84% it is the economy and the value of the real that matters most, 00:03:10.330 --> 00:03:13.200 align:middle line:84% which is at an all-time low while inflation 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:15.480 align:middle line:90% is at an all-time high-- 00:03:15.480 --> 00:03:17.370 align:middle line:84% all byproducts of what the government 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:20.070 align:middle line:90% calls economic terrorism. 00:03:20.070 --> 00:03:22.850 align:middle line:84% This is the former US embassy in Tehran. 00:03:22.850 --> 00:03:26.310 align:middle line:84% And it's been 41 years since students stormed these walls 00:03:26.310 --> 00:03:32.160 align:middle line:84% and took 52 US diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days. 00:03:32.160 --> 00:03:33.660 align:middle line:84% They were demanding the US government 00:03:33.660 --> 00:03:35.400 align:middle line:84% return the Shah of Iran who was there 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:37.570 align:middle line:90% receiving cancer treatment. 00:03:37.570 --> 00:03:38.820 align:middle line:90% Now it's been over four decades. 00:03:38.820 --> 00:03:41.760 align:middle line:84% And those feelings of hostilities and lack of trust 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:45.630 align:middle line:84% are still visible on these walls as these new murals show just 00:03:45.630 --> 00:03:48.810 align:middle line:84% how little has changed between Iran and the United States 00:03:48.810 --> 00:03:52.630 align:middle line:90% since the revolution of 1979. 00:03:52.630 --> 00:03:56.020 align:middle line:84% Dorsa Jabbari, Al Jazeera, Tehran.