At a joint press conference, the British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and this American counterpart mentioned the situation of Iran. Johnson said: “We in the UK feel that Iran – a country of 80 million people, many of them young and potentially liberal – could be won over.”

They were discussing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that is supposed to halt Iran’s nuclear arms race as well as its belligerence across the Middle East.

Johnson said: “I think it is important [the Iranian people] see there are benefits from the JCPOA.”

The Iran nuclear deal, or the JCPOA as it is formally known, has been in place for more than two years. One of the supposed benefits of the deal, or so we were told while it was being negotiated, was that billions of dollars’ worth of assets would do wonders for the country’s failing economy. We were also told that the lifting of sanctions would strengthen the country’s economy.
These benefits certainly would have been very welcome to the people of Iran who have been suffering from the side-effects of a rock bottom economy for years. The country has been plagued by poverty and the social conditions are terrible.

Education and health services are very poor and not accessible to all. People are selling body parts and organs to try and find a way out of their personal financial issues. There have been numerous reports of people sleeping in pre-dug graves. The majority of people live under the poverty line.

So yes, the billions and billions of dollars freed up from the nuclear deal could have made a very big difference to the people of Iran. However, this was not the case. The average Iranian person has seen very little change in their lives.

The people of Iran have watched their leaders plunder billions on funding terrorism outside the country. The biggest benefactor of the nuclear deal has been the country’s military that has had a huge budget increase.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) controls a large part of the country’s economy and it is heavily involved in horrific human rights abuses at home and terrorism abroad. The IRGC has made it almost impossible for companies in the private sector to do business.

So Boris Johnson, how on earth is it possible to tell the people of Iran that this deal is good? How is it possible to make them believe that their situation will get better? The nuclear deal empowers those that are responsible for taking away even the most basic of human rights. The deal empowers those that have taken away every freedom possible.

The people of Iran are well aware that the rulers of their country are corrupt. Society is on the brink of uprising, but they need the support of the international community.

During the 2009 protests in the country, former President of the US Barack Obama refused to acknowledge the uprising. The overthrow of the corrupt leadership was so close, but the international community let the people down by remaining silent. It is time those who respect and value human rights stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Iran who have had theirs taken away from them.

Source » ncr-iran