A former U.S. hostage in Iran has a message for President Trump: Don’t negotiate with the mullahs.
St. Louis native Rodney “Rocky” Sickmann says the regime is only trying to buy time while it kills its own people.
The current wave of anti-government protests in Iran began Dec. 28, sparked by a catastrophic economic collapse and record-high inflation. The Iranian rial fell to its lowest value in history, leaving many citizens unable to afford basic food and medicine.
While the unrest started with economic grievances, it quickly transformed into a nationwide revolution spurred on by frustrations over suffocating Islamic rule and the mullahs’ support for foreign terrorism.
Protesters in all 31 provinces are now demanding a total end to the Islamic Republic and the removal of its clerical leadership.
“I would hope that the president does not try to negotiate with Iran, because what they want is stall,” Sickmann tells The Heartlander.
“When I saw a clip of the Iranian government saying they want to negotiate, what they are really saying is they need to stall a little bit longer so they can kill more people and try to get the country under control.”
Sickmann was one of 66 Americans taken hostage in Tehran in 1979 and was among the 52 who spent 444 days in captivity. He is now watching the same government use military weapons on protesters across Iran.
“Forty-seven years ago, when they took us hostage, it was all about how the Shah was treating the Iranian people and how the SAVAK [secret police] was killing people. Well, now you go back and you see what is currently happening with the mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard. Everything that the Shah supposedly did, they are now doing to their own people.”
An Iranian official claims 5,000 people have died in the recent protests, but local doctors tell a much darker story: They report at least 16,500 protesters are dead and 330,000 have been injured.
The medical reports come from doctors using smuggled Starlink terminals. They say the regime is using military-grade weapons, and they report seeing gunshot and shrapnel wounds in the head and neck.
Sickmann points out the Iranian population has doubled since he was held captive. Roughly 60% of the 80 million people in Iran are 40 years of age or younger. Sickmann says these young people want peace and they want freedom.
“Those people are dying for their freedom. I hope the world is looking at that and seeing it. I have also heard that the mullahs and many in the government have visas to leave for Russia. Hopefully, that is what will happen. They will leave the country and a new government will come in.”
The instability is raising nuclear concerns. Former weapons inspector David Albright in Iraq says the government could lose control of its nuclear assets. Iran has a stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, and analysts warn this material could be stolen or sold if the government collapses.
Sickmann believes the only solution must come from within.
“You can’t have another government come in and take out a government. The Iranian people have to take their government out themselves.
“It is interesting to see how history repeats itself. That radical republic was created in April 1979, and many people just did not want it.”
