In what the Associated Press calls a rebuke of the president's war strategy, the U.S. House voted 215-208 Wednesday to approve a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran. A handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has driven up gasoline and grocery prices in the U.S.
Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress to limit his commander-in-chief authority, but as the next steps are uncertain, the on-again-off-again negotiations with Iran show no signs of coming to an end.
Meanwhile in Iran, under the narrative of a "return to normal life," the government recently restored the people's access to the internet after a historic 88-day near-total blackout that affected the livelihood of many. Connectivity remains highly unstable, degraded, and strictly censored, but Iranian users returning to platforms like X and Instagram reveal a mix of emotions and confusion about what a successful end to the war looks like.
Hormoz Shariat of Iran Alive Ministries says the Iranian people are becoming hopeless.
"The people of Iran are very confused, very hopeless, depressed, and they don't see any future except more executions and more killings and more oppression," he reports. "They just hope that somehow U.S. and Israel will bring down the government."
He says what leadership is left is holding on for dear life.
"They're even more motivated to stay than go because, if they stay, they come in power because there are vacancies at the top," Shariat relays. "They get in power, and they will become wealthy. But if they don't, they will lose everything. They will lose their lives, even."
Without a regime change, the situation will only get worse for the Iranian people.
The government is still carrying out executions at what human rights organizations say is an extremely high pace. Most are officially for crimes such as murder and drug offenses, but the death penalty is also being used to suppress political dissent and intimidate opposition groups.
"They're executing several people a day, and it could increase," Shariat warns.
"Everyone will suffer," he says, but he expects Christians especially will face a "new wave of persecution."
"So, the Iranians are not happy," he asserts.
In early January, Trump highlighted Iranians' suffering as a rationale for U.S. military action, but he told reporters in May, "I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all."
Kelly J. Shannon is a historian specializing in U.S.-Iran relations, U.S. foreign policy, human rights, and the Islamic world, wrote in April that if the United States ultimately abandons Iranians, then they will face "unimaginable retribution by the remnants of the Islamic Republic. "
"A wounded but surviving Islamic Republic may also be motivated to race toward acquiring a nuclear weapon to deter future foreign attacks, thus locking the Iranian people even more firmly behind a theocratic wall," she warned.
She encouraged the Trump administration to quickly land on a coherent plan for the war and its aftermath that takes the Iranian people into account.
