Detained Iranian teacher at risk of receiving death sentence

The messages from people inside Iran appeal directly to Trump to abandon diplomacy and instead support what they describe as a nationwide struggle for freedom and democracy.

“If you want to help the people of Iran, what does negotiating with our enemies mean?” one message from Tehran said, adding: “Negotiations with this regime only buy time for repression.”

Other messages from inside Iran cite recent protests and the deadly response by security forces, saying negotiations would legitimize a government they say has blood on its hands.

“Negotiating with this clerical government means trampling on the blood of young people killed in the streets,” one message reads.

Messages received from the city of Qazvin warn that talks would demoralize protesters and undermine months of resistance. “We came to the streets to free Iran from these criminals,” one message said. “Trading with this regime is trading with the blood of the people.”

Several messages from Tehran reference Trump’s past statements and promises, saying many Iranians trusted his rhetoric about standing for freedom.

“You said you support liberty,” one message from Tehran reads. “Please be the voice of the Iranian people. We are dying in the streets for freedom.”

A message sent from Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan offers condolences to families of those killed and urges Trump to “stand with the Iranian nation, not the Islamic Republic.”

Other messages from inside Iran warn of what they describe as a long pattern of deception, saying past deals with Iranian authorities helped ease international pressure on the Islamic Republic even as repression continued at home.

Some messages stress that the protest movement will endure even without foreign assistance. “Even if there is no outside intervention, we will stand together,” one message says.

'Not our representatives'

Across the messages, a shared demand emerges that world leaders not view the Islamic Republic as representing the Iranian people and avoid negotiations that could confer legitimacy on it.

“Please negotiate with the brave people of Iran, not with this suppressive regime,” one message says. “Do not turn a blind eye to these crimes.”

“Tell Trump that no one negotiates with a killer; killers should only be punished,” another message said.

A US Republican lawmaker voiced skepticism about prospects of a deal with Iran, arguing that Tehran’s leadership would not make peace with Washington.

“Iran’s not going to make a deal with us they plan on keeping. They hate us,” Rep. Don Bacon said in an interview with Fox News.

Bacon pointed to his military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying Iran-backed forces were responsible for American casualties.

“I served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq alone, 609 Americans were killed by Shia militias that were funded, trained, armed by the IRGC of Iran. And it goes way beyond just Iraq,” he said.

He called on the US president to stand by his promise of supporting protestors in Iran

“The president has dug himself a hole here that he’s going to have to get out of. He made a commitment publicly that if the Iranian people would take on their government, try to take over their institutions, that America would be there to help them,” Bacon said.

He said the only path to lasting peace between Washington and Tehran would be for the United States to side with the Iranian people against their government.

“I think the only answer left is for America to side with the Iranian people and to get rid of this regime once and for all, and ultimately, that’s the only way we’re going to have peace with Iran, because this regime will never make peace with the United States of America,” he said.

Iranian authorities have arrested three reformist political activists, IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency reported on Sunday.

Those detained were identified as Azar Mansouri, secretary-general of the reformist Union of Islamic Iran People Party; Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, a reformist political activist and former diplomat; and Mohsen Aminzadeh, a former deputy foreign minister under President Mohammad Khatami.

Fars said the charges against them include “targeting national cohesion,” “taking positions against the constitution” and “coordinating with enemy propaganda.”

Iranians rallied in several European and US cities over the weekend in support of nationwide protests inside Iran last month, calling for international support for protesters.

In London, crowds gathered on Sunday for a solidarity demonstration supporting demonstrators inside the country.

In the United States, Iranians living in Bellevue, Seattle, held a rally urging global support for the protest movement.

Members of the Iranian diaspora in Georgia assembled in the capital, Tbilisi, where participants chanted slogans including “We will take Iran back.”

While last month’s protests in Iran were suppressed with deadly force, rallies by the Iranian diaspora abroad have continued.

Russia and Oman share the view that further talks between Iran and the United States should be encouraged to reach broadly acceptable agreements that ensure regional security, Russia’s foreign ministry said after a phone call between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Omani counterpart, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al-Busaidi.

“The sides exchanged views on the situation around Iran in the context of the recent Omani-mediated round of indirect talks between the Iranian and American representatives in Muscat,” the ministry said.

“The sides expressed a shared opinion on the necessity of promoting the continuation of the negotiating process … to remove the risks of an armed confrontation and ensure stability in the region.”