Iran thinks it won the war with US — now Christians are paying the price

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) published a list of “hostile” media organizations on July 14, including multiple Christian evangelical broadcasters based outside of Iran. Those Tehran finds guilty of “cooperation,” which includes tuning into broadcasts, with these organizations face years in prison, or worse.

The move comes after Islamic Republic authorities seized Iran’s oldest Protestant church and ordered the 20 low-income Christian families living on its grounds to vacate, telling church leaders they are “no longer afraid of America.”

The crumbling agreement between Tehran and Washington to halt the war that began on February 28 was sufficient for the regime to refocus on its domestic “enemies,” including those who dare explore faiths outside of Islam.

Since the war began, the regime has arbitrarily detained more than 6,000 people. Many Iranian Christians — one of the world’s fastest-growing faith communities — are caught in this net. Following a pattern seen after the 12-Day War in June 2025, the regime is fabricating scapegoats, with Christian converts serving as ideal targets to be accused of acting on behalf of the United States and Israel. Iranian propaganda outlets often label members of the faith as Western-aligned or Zionist, casting them as an “enemy” within.

Even after the 12-Day War, which was more clearly at least a limited defeat for Tehran, the regime ramped up its persecution of Christians. Whether Tehran feels it won or lost a war, Christian converts in particular become its targets. A loss means the regime feels fragile and scapegoats invented enemies. A victory, even pyrrhic or perceived, emboldens the regime to force its fanatical religious beliefs on those whose mere existence challenges them.

Right now, the regime believes it has outlasted the United States and can intensify its crackdown with impunity. It is now carrying out persecutory measures against Christians even the most hardline among them once balked at.

In one recent case, Mohammad Nikbakht, a Christian convert and civic activist who has been in custody since March, faces threats of execution. His brothers have already been sentenced to death on charges of “corruption on Earth” over their alleged role in organizing anti-regime protests.

Some members of Iran’s Christian community have been disappeared, including Mary Mohammadi, a Christian convert who was moved to an undisclosed location in late April. Her family has lost contact with her.

In May, authorities announced the arrest of three “main elements” of what they claimed was a “Christian evangelistic network” that had converted friends and family to “Zionist” Christianity, and “prayed for the victory of the Zionist regime.”

After being arrested, there is little chance of acquittal in Iran’s injustice system, not least because the regime has a habit of imprisoning the attorneys tasked with providing a defense. Lawyer Bahar Sahraian, detained in May, was following up on cases she had before the Shiraz Revolutionary Court when she was taken to the prosecutor’s office and charged with “assembly and collusion to act against national security,” “propaganda activities against the Islamic system,” and “publishing falsehoods” before being sent to prison. Sahraian had previously defended Christian converts who were sentenced to 10 years for adopting a Muslim girl.

Classifying Christianity as a political offense funnels converts into Evin Prison, notorious for abusing detainees. Convert Mahshar Parandin is currently at the facility and has been denied surgery for tumors that threaten to rob her of her sight. Catholic convert Ghazal Marzban, sentenced to almost 10 years in Evin for “propaganda against the state,” began a hunger strike to protest her arrest and living conditions.

Victims’ loved ones aren’t spared. The family of Mohsen Rashidi, a Christian convert among at least 22 killed by the regime during the January protests, was forbidden from erecting a gravestone over his burial site and was forced to pay around $8,000 to recover his body.

The regime demolished the Mashhad Evangelical Church in June, which had been one of two churches in Iran to offer Persian-language services before both were closed decades ago. Choosing now to demolish a church that Tehran had forcibly closed decades ago not only means those communities cannot be revived but also shows that the Islamic regime feels comfortable conducting persecutory acts it had refrained from for decades.

Now that the Islamic Republic thinks it has faced maximal American-Israeli pressure and won, these persecutory acts are likely a mere prelude.

Iran’s judiciary exploits the deliberately vague penal codes to sentence Christians, like Article 500 that forbids worship that “interferes with the sacred law of Islam,” and was used in the prosecution of nearly 90% of cases against Christians in 2025.

The Shiite supremacist regime only officially recognizes ethnic Armenian and Assyrian Christians, and forbids worship in the Persian language. Apostasy is a crime punishable by death under Iran’s version of the Islamic penal code, even if it is not often carried out.

In recent weeks, the Memorandum of Understanding has all but collapsed, and Washington reissued sanctions against Iranian drone and oil sales. Missing, however, from this return to maximum pressure are human rights sanctions.

The Trump administration should sanction the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization and reviled judges such as Ashkan Ramesh and Iman Afshari under the Global Magnitsky Act for violations of religious freedom. It should also consider adding the local policing bodies responsible for church demolitions and arrests of Christians. The U.S. should also fill the long-vacant Ambassador-at-large for Religious Freedom position, so Washington has an operative body to focus on this and other religious persecution issues.

In the next round of talks, Washington should not abandon its commitment to defending religious freedom worldwide. The Islamic Republic’s persecution of Christians should not go unremarked.