I had been trying to reach my friend Reza since the war broke out, but Tuesday night was the first time my calls went through. I spoke to him around 2 a.m. in Iran, an hour and a half before the deadline Trump gave the regime to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“It’s a special night,” Reza said to me, sounding calm yet animated, “because of the ultimatum.”
Reza, whose name we have changed for his own safety, is a thirtysomething man in Isfahan, a city in the very center of Iran where the nation’s highly enriched stash of uranium is believed to be buried. Over the past few weeks, videos from Iran have shown massive explosions in and around Isfahan.
But by the time my conversation with Reza was over, a ceasefire will have been declared—news that, for him, will be bittersweet.
