A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
As the latest negotiations between Iran and the U.S. end, Iranian Americans are watching and waiting. It's still difficult for them to connect with family and friends in Iran, and a sense of hopelessness is now settling in. Reporter Kelly McEvers is with us now. Kelly, I know you've been staying in touch with different groups of Iranian Americans since the war started. What have you been hearing in the last few days?
KELLY MCEVERS: Well, first, I should be clear that when it comes to the Iranian diaspora, we're talking about folks who mostly are not supporters of the current Iranian regime, right? Many emigrated here after 1979, when the Islamic Republic came to power. But yeah. I'm in group chats with Iranians in Los Angeles, which has the biggest population of Iranians in the U.S., and I go to meet with them in person. And in the early days of this current war, there were these big rallies in support of it. But now I hear a lot of people saying they don't want war - they want peace - like Maryam Raeesdana. She's a writer and a translator. And she says, at first...
MARYAM RAEESDANA: The Iranian people had hope - maybe help is coming. But after one week, two week, three weeks, they lost it day by day, bomb after bomb.
MCEVERS: And especially, she says, after President Trump threatened in a social media post to destroy Iranian civilization. Still, Maryam says there's a split in her family. Many, like her, are saying, no more war. But her cousin in Iran still believes that the war is the best way to get rid of the regime.
RAEESDANA: She says to me, I want to die if the regime will not change because after the war, they will start again to execute people.
MCEVERS: She's, of course, talking about the thousands of Iranians who were killed by regime forces in January after massive street protests.
A MARTÍNEZ: It sounds like even in one family, there's agreement on the outcome but tension over how to get there. Are you hearing that as well from other folks?
MCEVERS: Yes. I have stayed in touch with Alborz Pakravan since the beginning of the war. He works in the semiconductor industry in Arizona. And it has been so interesting to see how he and his family's opinions have changed. They were so optimistic at first, right? The war will be quick. The Israeli and U.S. military won't target civilians. The regime in Iran is going to fall. But the family later had to leave their home in Isfahan. That's where Iran's largest nuclear research complex is. Of course, ending Iran's nuclear program is one of the U.S.' key demands in this war. But the family went north to get away from the bombing. And then when the ceasefire was announced, Alborz talked to his mom on a landline, and she was crying like he'd never heard her cry before.
ALBORZ PAKRAVAN: She was really disappointed, and she said, we are being played. She said, damn this Donald Trump because he betrayed us.
MCEVERS: I mean, it's not like she wants the destruction of her country and her people, but the war was something that gave her hope that things might change. Alborz says it's cognitive dissonance.
PAKRAVAN: You don't want the war. You don't want, like, infrastructure, go back to the Stone Age, quote-unquote, right? At the same time, this regime is not redeemable.
MCEVERS: And he feels this personally. And he says he was punished for being an activist in Iran, and he emigrated to the U.S. in 2012.
A MARTÍNEZ: Wondering, Kelly - is he still optimistic?
MCEVERS: He actually is, first off, because he's the one who has to keep his family's spirits up. Also, he thinks the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran and Pakistan were more about calming the markets than reaching an actual deal. But big picture, he is still hopeful that this war will one day weaken the regime enough that it will fall, even though that is not how his mom and many other people I talk to see it now.
A MARTÍNEZ: That's reporter Kelly McEvers, Kelly, thanks a lot.
MCEVERS: You're welcome.
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