Iranians react with sadness, defiance to Trump’s withdrawal from N-deal

Iranians reacted with a mix of sadness, resignation and defiance on Wednesday to US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, with sharp divisions among officials on how best to respond.

"It makes people angry. Sanctions impact the people, not the regime. People worry it will be even more difficult to find medicine when they are sick. This was an issue in the past," said one young woman in Tehran.

Asked how she felt about Trump’s claim that he stood with "the long-suffering Iranian people" against their government, she said: "That makes them even more angry." For many, Trump’s decision on Tuesday to pull out of the landmark nuclear deal marked the final death knell for the hope created when it was signed in 2015 that Iran might finally escape decades of isolation and US hostility.

"The first feeling I got, my family and I, was that we should not stay here anymore," said Katayoon Soltani, an accountant. "Even without sanctions, our economy was terrible. With this decision, I don’t know what will happen. All my friends want to leave Iran. This is not a place where we want to stay," she said. Still hoping to salvage something from the deal, President Hassan Rouhani has instructed his foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to hold negotiations with the other five parties -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia.

They have all signalled their consternation at Trump’s withdrawal, which includes an order for foreign businesses to wind down their Iranian operations within six months or face US penalties. But while European leaders have defiantly said they will work to protect their trade ties, Iran’s leaders are sceptical.

"You want to continue the nuclear deal with the three European countries; I don’t have confidence in these three countries," said supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a televised speech.

"If you don’t succeed in obtaining a definitive guarantee -- and I really doubt that you can -- at that moment, we cannot continue like this," he said. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Europe had caved to US pressure before, having shut up shop under previous international sanctions in 2012-15.

"We can’t put much confidence in their statements about preserving the agreement, but it’s worth testing for a few weeks so that it’s clear to the world that Iran has tried all the avenues to a peaceful political resolution," Larijani told parliament. For many conservatives in Iran, Trump’s decision was a vindication.

"I welcome the withdrawal of the United States from the nuclear deal," said General Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, in several media. "It was clear from the start that the United States is not trustworthy."

He said the nuclear question was just a pretext to curb Iran’s defensive capabilities and the "power and influence of the Islamic revolution in the region." The divisions were clear in the Iranian press on Wednesday morning.

Reformist daily Etemad welcomed a "nuclear deal without the trouble-maker" and reprinted a tweet from Rouhani saying: "We have been freed from the evil of someone who does not respect their commitments."

The ultra-hardline Kayhan, on the other hand, opted for: "Trump has torn up the nuclear deal, it is time for us to burn it". Some hardline lawmakers demonstrated their feelings on the floor of the parliament chamber by burning a paper American flag and a copy of the nuclear accord.