Jubilant crowds met Iranian officials the streets of Tehran after the Iranian nuclear deal negotiator and his American counterparts announced that they had agreed to a framework for a deal to limit
Iran’s nuclear capability. While the deal has yet to be finalized, for many in Iran, the biggest breakthrough of the 18-month negotiations is the easing of sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
The agreement was hailed by President Barack Obama as a “good deal” that “meets our core objectives.” Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javed Zarif called it a “win-win outcome.”
A more boisterous response was heard on the streets of Tehran. A cheering crowd offered Zarif a “hero’s welcome” when he landed in Iran on a flight from Switzerland, where the multilateral negotiations took place.
“We are very happy, so happy,” a Tehran resident named Musa told the AP. “We haven’t make any big progress in 10 years, we are very happy that we can finally go forward. It’s a real victory for us.”
Many Iranians took to social media to express their feelings over the deal.
Today I saw lots of happy faces in Iran… pic.twitter.com/r7gMRH0PLw
— Sobhan Hassanvand (@Hassanvand) April 3, 2015
Last night was an historic moment for many Iranians, potentially an end to sanctions http://t.co/XL6PQswPzQ pic.twitter.com/1s3ZwV3x6Y
— Thomas Erdbrink (@ThomasErdbrink) April 3, 2015
Even though Twitter and Facebook are officially blocked in Iran, many Iranians still manage to bypass the state’s censorship policies.
The deal will significantly repeal sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies against Iran in 2010 that have, by the U.S. government’s own estimate, contracted Iran’s economy by one-fifth.
Oil revenues once accounted for 80 percent of the country’s public revenue. Sanctions not only stripped Iran of profit from oil sales, but drove up operating costs which led to untrammeled inflations which reached a peak of 45 percent in July 2013, and only began to subside when sanctions against the country were eased as a part of the framework for nuclear negotiations. Soaring costs and persistent layoffs took their toll, leaving more than 40 percent of Iranians in poverty, and almost one-third of them unemployed.
“I have never felt under such financial pressure in 15 years of married life,” a 43-year-old retired secretary told the Financial Times in 2013. “My husband and I have forgotten about our own needs — sometimes we even forgo medical treatment — and we only focus on education, food and the health of our daughter.”
Many in Iran feared that a deal would not come together amid numerous delays and setbacks. Its announcement signaled the promise of returned prosperity — or at least business as usual — to a country which has been economically hamstrung for years.
“I was crying with happiness. It is unbelievable,” Elnaz Karimi, a commercial manager, told the New York Times, explaining that the sanctions had caused her company to lose business as international transactions became overwhelmingly expensive.
“Now we can use this money we would spend on trying to do business on investments,” she said.
“For our company, this is basically a new life,” An Iranian electronics company employee said. “Lots of the spare parts we need comes from the US, but we had to obtain them from the black market in cash and with higher prices. Now we might be able to access them normally in the near future.”
Some Iranians talked of the deal as the end of a long winter, and others as a sort of lifeline.
“This will bring hope to our life,” Ali, a 34-year-old Tehran resident said. “It was as if someone had blocked my airways but I can now breathe. Everyone is happy, we’ve been waiting for this for too long.”