For years, we feared that the Islamic Republic was trying to turn Iran into another North Korea, isolating Iranians from the rest of the world. Apparently, it is not alone in that effort. When a right-wing US administration imposes airline sanctions and restrictions that make it harder for ordinary Iranians to access international language tests, education, travel and normal connections with the outside world, the burden falls on the very people who have already endured decades of repression and isolation. The Trump camp and the rulers of the Islamic Republic may portray themselves as enemies, but ordinary Iranians have repeatedly paid the price for the policies of both: war, threats, sanctions, repression, isolation and deprivation. Any policy that further traps, isolates or deprives the Iranian people, whether it comes from Tehran or Washington, is a policy against the Iranian people. Iranians are not political leverage for any government.

By Kevin Sep 10, 2026