As Iran awaited a possible retaliatory attack by Israel, its top officials threatened to respond with force and the military was placed on maximum alert. But many Iranians said in interviews, social media and virtual town hall discussions that they fear widespread war with Israel.
In phone interviews with more than a dozen Iranians in various cities, men and women across the political divide said they do not want or support war with Israel or the United States. They said their lives were already struggling due to a dire economy, American sanctions, corruption and repression. War could exacerbate these difficulties and plunge the country into further turmoil.
“No one I know is prepared for the possibility of war. We’re worried, let’s live normal lives. We don’t intend to go into a war period, and we don’t want it.” Mahdiye, 41, an engineer living in Tehran, said in a telephone interview. She asked that her last name not be published for fear of retaliation. She said she and her husband had prepared an emergency bag with documents in case they needed to leave Tehran.
Viral messages shared by many Iranians on social media included: “Let’s stop the war” and “Which bunkers will we use to protect our people?” How do you repair damaged infrastructure? There is no benefit to war. Don’t destroy Iran. ”
On Monday, Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s killing of top regional ally Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a senior Iranian general in Beirut, and a Hamas political leader in Tehran. It fired. Israel said it would respond by attacking Iran. Potential targets include Revolutionary Guard military bases and oil refineries.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian traveled to Qatar on Wednesday to attend a conference of the Organization of Islamic States, and said his country does not want war. “There are no winners in war, we know that.” “If Israel makes even the slightest mistake, Iran will react even more strongly,” he warned.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement that Tehran and the U.S. government exchanged messages through official intermediaries in Tehran following the Israeli attack. The statement said Iran considers any country that supported Israel in its attacks on Israel to be “accomplices and legitimate targets.”
Iran asked Russia for satellite information ahead of the Israeli attack, according to two Iranian officials familiar with the war plans but not authorized to speak publicly.
But even with the government’s saber rattling, even some government supporters who had cheered an attack on Israel are now calling for an all-out war that could destroy infrastructure and damage the economy. facing reality. Faced with that possibility, some hope that Israel’s response will be limited and that retaliatory strikes will end quickly.
“We had to slap[Israel]in the face,” Hamidreza Jalaypour, a prominent sociologist close to reformists, said in a discussion on the app Clubhouse. We’re going to keep moving forward.” “If there is a war, it will be forced on us.”
Jalaipur said he predicted that in the event of war, the majority of Iranians would unite under the flag to vigorously defend the country and put aside divisions.
But dissatisfaction with the government persists, with demonstrators demanding the overthrow of the ruling clergy amid waves of protests, particularly the 2022 women-led uprising. The loyalty and ideological zeal of the revolution’s early days – when even teenagers volunteered to serve on the front lines of the eight-year war the country was fighting with Iraq – gave way to despair and dissatisfaction with the status quo. superseded.
Some government opponents said they were angry that Iran attacked Israel in the first place and risked the lives and safety of its own people for a cause outside its borders. At previous anti-government protests, people chanted “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, lives for Iran”.
And even though an Israeli attack seemed likely and imminent, the government had not announced any emergency provisions to prepare the population for war.
“Most of us are not happy with the Islamic Republic’s interference in the region and its so-called proxies. Our people do not want national resources to be spent abroad,” said Mahan, a 50-year-old doctor from the northern city of Rasht. said. “The most pressing emotion these days, both for myself and for most of my friends and people I know, is fear and worry about war.”
