'In shock' and 'hopeless': voicenotes from inside Iran show reaction to draft peace deal

We finally decided to take a holiday - so naturally news broke, as is typical in KianpourWorld. Reporting live from Portofino, Italy.

This morning I told Times Radio this is a ‘World Cup Peace Deal’, meaning President Trump was desperate to bring home a deal - any deal - as the US co-hosted tournament began. That being said, I’m not sure it’ll even last to the knockout stages -there can be no real peace with a regime that vows death to America and to Israel, and we’ve seen protests in the streets from hardliners who oppose any sort of peace with the US.

Let’s remember too this is a deal we haven't seen the details of yet.

Broadly a lot of the criticism is fair - it does nothing to support human rights in Iran, and resets the Straits of Hormuz issue at best to what it was before hostilities began. But, in the longer term, several big things have changed:

A generation of IRGC leaders have been removed. We don't know whether replacements will be more or less hardline than their predecessors. But in a regime that only had one change of leadership in 47 years, it introduces a new dynamic to the politics of the region and we can't yet say what the outcome will be. Similarly - Israel and the US have continued to attack Hezbollah, killing senior commanders who have sponsored terrorism across the region, including killing Iranian civilians inside Iran.

Relations between Iran and the GCC countries have changed for good. If previously the UAE and others were trying to remain non-aligned, the bomardment of GCC states by the Iranians will not be forgiven. IRGC safe havens in the region for plundered cash have gone, along with free travel for regime officials from Iran to Dubai and beyond.

Finally, the Strait of Hormuz threat is a strong one, but it become less effective each time it’s used. Again, GCC countries and others will redouble their efforts to bypass the Strait altogether, and will commit the infrastructure investment needed to do that.

In short - in 2026 Iran played all their cards. The regime is signficantly weaker and more isolated. Every peace deal in history was unsatisfactory to most of the participants. There's a risk that European and US media - always keen to portray everything Trump does as a disaster - will give the deal a framing it doesn't deserve. Let's see.

Now that the internet is unblocked in the country, I’ve been receiving voice notes and messages reacting to the supposed deal. I was struck by how calm and measured they were - while describing unfathomable living conditions. And as much as they feel hopeless, I feel helpless.

In his own words, translated from Persian, this is what one man sent H2H:

“Hello. I’m sending this message from Iran.

When the clerical regime and the Islamic Republic killed and executed so many Iranians, Mr. Trump was our only hope. He was the only hope for us, and he gave us hope for a better life.

But when Mr. Trump reached an agreement (or pursued negotiations), all of us became disappointed. Things have reached a point where many of us wish the war had never happened at all. We wish we could go back to the way things were before the war.

Life here is very bad. Inflation is out of control. The price of everything has increased by 200% or 300%. Our work and livelihoods are much worse than they were before the war.

We don’t have any security or peace of mind. We’re struggling just to survive and put food on the table.

Honestly, it’s very difficult for us.

A large portion of society is disappointed, deeply upset, and angry.

People are asking why this war happened in the first place. Why did Trump encourage people to go into the streets and then have them killed? Why did this war happen only for the Islamic Republic to emerge victorious in the end?

With this agreement, we’ve essentially returned to where we were before the war. Now it seems you’re going to quickly lift sanctions on Iran as well.

The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war, and now it’s going to be open again. There was no real siege or blockade on Iran before the war, and now whatever restrictions existed will likely be removed. Then you’ll probably grant additional concessions and return to negotiating over the nuclear issue.

Everything feels absurd. What’s even stranger is that people inside Iran have now split into different camps.

The first group consists of opponents of the Islamic Republic. They are extremely disappointed, angry, and frustrated.

The second group consists of people who support the Islamic Republic but oppose this agreement. They feel almost the same way as the regime’s opponents.

The third group consists of supporters of the Islamic Republic who have no problem with the agreement. They probably make up only about 5–10 percent of society.

The other 90 percent—the first and second groups—are extremely angry.

What America did was one of the most foolish things imaginable.

People believed Trump, went into the streets, and were killed. Then a war was started, and people became five or six times poorer.

In the end, the Islamic Republic survived the war. Nothing significant changed. The nuclear program is still in place, essentially where it was before the war. Its missile program is still there as well.

And its support for regional proxy groups continues.

I don’t know what else to say. Everything seems so irrational that it’s still difficult for me to believe it.”

Another woman sent us a note where her voice was audibly despondent.

“But now that they’ve reached an agreement, we even heard that the national football team may be allowed back into international competitions (or that restrictions are being lifted).

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia was isolated and punished by much of the world.

But with Iran, it’s different. Nobody seems to be saying anything. Nobody is paying attention to us.

In any case, we lost. We lost.

We are very upset because it feels like nobody hears our voice.

For them, it seems that uranium is all that matters. Once the uranium issue is addressed, then people no longer matter.”

That being said, I received an Instagram message from inside with a slightly different take:

“There are two winning cards, one is nuclear energy and the second is the Strait of Hormuz, which are the two main points of the agreement, and accepting that the Strait of Hormuz be open without tolls and stopping uranium production means surrender (from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United States of America.”

What do you think? As always - this is a space for dialogue, so we would love to hear from you. Leave a comment.