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Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, ‘United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas’: HERE.
Iranians inside and outside the country look with trepidation at the Trump administration’s negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It now appears that Trump will not attack Iran, despite having promised to do so if protesters were killed, and he is focused only on Iran’s nuclear program, not on the ballistic missiles that are a much more immediate threat to American bases in the region, to Israeli cities, and to Saudi oilfields.
Jafar Panahi, Iran’s most famous film director, whose film “It Was Just An Accident” just won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and is a favorite to win an Oscar, just gave an interview to Agence France-Presse on his fear that Iranians’ interests will be “sacrificed” in US talks. More of his interview with AFP can be found here: “Iran filmmaker Panahi fears Iranians’ interests will be ‘sacrificed’ in US talks,” AFP, February 5, 2026:
Panahi, Iran’s best-known director, offered support for anti-government protests last month in which thousands of people were killed by security forces, according to rights groups.
US President Donald Trump, having initially encouraged the demonstrations, has since focused his attention on making a deal with Iran’s clerical leadership over the country’s nuclear and missile programmes.
In an interview in Paris on Wednesday, Panahi told AFP that “whatever happens in these negotiations they will not be in the people’s favour”.
“The people have no representative in these negotiations, and their interests are never taken into account. They can easily be sacrificed in these exchanges,” he added.
Panahi’s comments reflect concerns that the talks between US and Iranian officials scheduled for Friday in Muscat could help consolidate the power of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Panahi has been out of Iran for the last few months and his latest film “It Was Just an Accident” is in the running for Best International Feature at the Oscars.
The 65-year-old has been sentenced to a year in jail during his absence for “propaganda activities” against the state, but insisted to AFP he planned to return home….
“It is my home and I will return to my country,” he told AFP.
He may not have a choice about returning home. If the regime holds on, it may forbid him from re-entering his own country, condemning him to an involuntary exile where he will be separated from his family, who will be held hostage as a way to ensure that he doesn’t call for “Death to the Dictator.” And as an Iranian director, used to his all-Iranian casts and crews, he would have a hard time practicing his craft outside of Iran.
But now Jafar Panahi has said aloud to AFP what many Iranians are thinking: he fears that Trump, now quite content to be negotiating with the mass murderers in Tehran, will sacrifice the interests of the Iranian people to his own manic desire to take credit for making “peace” with Iran, while visions of a Nobel Prize dance in his head. Let us hope, then, that Trump will be goaded beyond endurance by the Iranians who will reject all three of his demands, and then have to take the other path, the one marked by bombs away.
Mr. Fitzgerald is rather obsessed with this.
Maybe he should take a few steps back and review this enthusiasm for adventure where other people pay for his pleasure.