We are ashamed that our government has broken an agreement that was already signed not just by the United States and Iran, but also by France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China, and then approved by the entire UN Security Council in a unanimous vote.

We are ashamed that our government has broken a deal that was working, a deal with which Iran was complying, a deal that was making our entire world safer and could have moved our nations closer towards the path of friendship.

Unlike our president, we believe that a deal is a deal. Unlike our president, we want to resolve the conflicts in the Middle East, not escalate them. Unlike our president, we want our nation’s resources to be dedicated to enriching people’s lives, not enriching the weapons makers.

Unlike our president, we want to live in peace and harmony with the people of Iran.

We understand that our nation already has a dreadful history of meddling in the internal affairs of your country.

The 1953 coup that overthrew your democratically elected government was unconscionable. So was US support for Iraq’s Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran in 1980, including selling him material for making chemical weapons that were used against you.

The 1988 shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 passengers and crew, was unconscionable. So, too, are the decades of covert actions to overthrow your government and the decades of sanctions that have brought such needless suffering to ordinary Iranians.

We understand that the US government has no business interfering in your internal affairs or in the Middle East in general. We should not be selling weapons to nations guilty of gross human rights violations or sending our military to fight in faraway lands.

With all the flaws in our own society — from massive inequality and racism to a political system corrupted by monetary influences — we should clean up our own house instead of telling others how to govern themselves.

We will do everything in our power to stop Donald Trump from strangling your economy and taking us to war with you. We will ask the UN to sanction the United States for violating the nuclear agreement.

We will urge the Europeans, Russians, and Chinese to keep the deal alive and increase their trade relations. And we will work to rid ourselves of this unscrupulous president and replace him with someone who is trustworthy, moral, and committed to diplomacy.

Please accept our hand in friendship. May the peacemakers prevail over those who sow hatred and discord.

“[T]he best estimates at this time place Iran between three and five years away from possessing the prerequisites required for the independent production of nuclear weapons.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (1995)

“There is not any question whatsoever that Saddam [Hussein] is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons — no question whatsoever.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (addressing US Congress, 2002)

“We don’t need atomic bombs, and based on our religious teaching, we will not pursue them . . . but at the same time, we want to be strong, and being strong means having knowledge and technology.”
— Iran President Mohammed Khatami (2003)

“We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran, whose policies are directed at developing a Middle East that would be 180 degrees different from the Middle East that we would like to see develop . . . .”
— US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice 2006)

“There is no sign that Iran’s leaders have ordered up a bomb.”
— US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (2009)

“Despite years of covert operations inside Iran, extensive satellite imagery, and the recruitment of many Iranian intelligence assets, the United States and its allies, including Israel, have been unable to find irrefutable evidence . . . .”
— Seymour Hersh (2011)

“An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way how to do it . . . . We are going to ignite, at least from my point of view, a regional war. And wars, you know how they start. You never know how you are ending it.”
— Former Mossad director Meir Dagan (2012)

“We believe that using nuclear weapons is haraam and prohibited and that it is everybody’s duty to make efforts to protect humanity against this great disaster.”
— Ayatollah Ali Kahamenei (2012)

“[Iran is] four to eight weeks away [from a nuclear bomb].”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (2012)

“They are very close, they’re six months away from being about 90 percent of having the enriched uranium for an atom bomb, I think that you have to place that red line before them now, before it’s — it’s too late.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu to 60 Minutes (September 2012)

Iran is “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons.”
— Mossad Intelligence report (October 22, 2012)

“Iran wants to be in position to rush forward and build nuclear bombs before the world can prevent it.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (2013)

“We have seen nothing from Netanyahu but lies and actions to deceive and scare, and international public opinion will not let these lies go unanswered.”
— Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (2013)

“By next spring — at most, by next summer, at current enrichment rates — they will have finished the medium enrichment and moved on to the final stage . . . . From there, it’s only a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (February 2015)

“Iran will gradually, within a few years, develop capabilities to produce material for many nuclear weapons.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (March 2015)

“The foremost sponsor of international terrorism could be weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (March 2015)

“No credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.”
— International Atomic Energy Agency (2015)

“We will not allow a regime hell-bent on the annihilation of the Jewish state to acquire nuclear weapons.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (2017)

“If we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interest, then clearly we should stay with it . . . . I believe at this point in time, absent indications to the contrary, it is something that the president should consider staying with.”
— US Defense Secretary James N. Mattis (October 3, 2017)

“I can assure that if Iran’s interests are not secured, Iran will respond, will respond seriously . . . . We will not be the first ones to violate [the agreement].”
— Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (February 18, 2018)

“The IAEA inspection regime agreed as part of the Iran nuclear deal is one of the most extensive and robust in the history of international nuclear accords.”
— UK government spokesperson (April 30, 2018)

What I have seen from the first reports is that Prime Minister Netanyahu has not put into question Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] commitments, meaning post-2015 nuclear commitments . . . . The IAEA has published 10 reports, certifying that Iran has fully complied with its commitments.
— European Union High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini (April 30, 2018)

“If you do nothing to this deal, if you keep it as is, you will end up with Iran with a nuclear arsenal in a very short time.”
— Benjamin Netanyahu (May 1, 2018)

“Our friends are safer if we stay in this agreement. We made an agreement, Iran is living by the agreement . . . . All Americans should care enormously about not igniting new conflict, not creating a more threatening situation that we have today.”
— John Kerry (May 8, 2018)