'We're so stressed': Iranians caught up in rising Middle East tensions fearful of the future
By Suzanne Elliott
The world held its breath earlier this month as more than 200 Iranian drones, ballistic and cruise missiles crawled over the Middle East towards Israel.
The attack was the first on Israel by a foreign power since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, and represented a key moment in what had been a decades-long shadow war between the two countries.
The display of firepower by the theocratic Iranian government, headed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, came in response to a suspected Israeli strike on April 1 that targeted a consular building next to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Caught up in the middle of Tehran’s military response were ordinary Iranians, some of whom feel increasingly at war with the hardline regime amid political and economic instability.
Views among the 89 million population are divided about whether the regime was right to aim missiles at Israel, a country Tehran refuses to acknowledge, referring to it as the “occupying regime”.
ITV News has spoken to people in the country to get their reaction to their government's response. We have chosen not to name them.
'We were so stressed'
Those inside Iran feared retaliation as Western powers rallied around Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu in a show of solidarity.
A 23-year-old medical student in Semnan, a city about 150 miles east of Tehran told ITV News she was "fearful" of the consequences of Tehran's actions.
"We were all so stressed," she says when asked about the attacks. “I would rather the government had negotiated with Israel.”
But the regime, who have been stoking tensions for years across the region, are in no mood to negociate.The 23-year-old said she and her friends and family had not made any changes to their everyday lives in response to the escalation, but said they are stressed and fearful “all the time”.
A 55-year-old retiree from Tehran, meanwhile, told ITV News: “We are 100% more fearful than we were before.
"And that's because we are worried about our government's actions. Iran's regime keeps interfering in other countries' affairs and causing these unrests."
“The correct thing to do was not to interfere from the beginning in the Israel and Palestine conflicts," she adds.
But not everyone disagrees. A 49-year man from Tehran, with a master’s degree, told ITV News the regime's response was “appropriate”.
“What Israel did was wrong [bombing Iranians targets] but what Iran did was very correct.”
“Let’s not forget that for the first time, Israel had clearly invaded our country’s territory,” he adds.
Despite fears the attack would ignite a wider war, the regime-backing manager believes his government’s retaliation defused the precarious situation, a view shared by others.
Israel’s response, when it came last Friday - a strike attempt against an airbase near the city of Isfahan - was muted.
“If we didn’t respond, the likelihood of war would have been higher," the 49-year-old man said.
“During the Iran and Iraq war [1980-1988] they were trying to separate Khuzestan, but we stood firm and prevented it. It’s only by standing firm that we can prevent audacity," he added.
The shadow of war was a concern for others we spoke to but more so was the wider fallout.
The 55-year-old woman from Tehran said she was a little worried about a tit-for-tat attack by Israel, but added: “Because Israel's every move is highly calculated, I hope that nothing will happen to ordinary citizens like me, apart from the economic impact it will have.
“I hope it won't cost me my life, but unfortunately, economically, it will affect our lives significantly.”
The economic fallout
And that is another point the people ITV News spoke to agree on, that life will become harder as the country, already politically and economically ostracised, is further punished by Western powers.
While the risk of further conflict may have be, at least for now, subdued, people in Iran fear the economic fallout. Soaring inflation in Iran, which stands at nearly 40%, has crippled households. Already heavily sanctioned and reliant on imports from Russia and China, the US and UK imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran after the attack. The move is likely to see the cost of living rise even more.
"I feel like maybe many things that I could have achieved before might not be possible anymore," the student in Semnan said. "Life might get a bit tougher. Normal life! Financial worries might increase, I think."
But the government-supporting 49-year-old believes the difficulties are not too high a price to pay: “Definitely life will get harder, but you can still live in darkness.”
Israel and Iran have been involved in a decades-long shadow war that recent events have brought out into the open. Iranians are encouraged by their leaders to be anti-Israel, and anti-semitic. But many Iranians are ambivalent about a country hundreds of miles away. Some Iranians do not even consider themselves to be part of the Middle East and are reluctant to be pulled into escalating conflict in the region.
“As a normal citizen I want my government to pay attention to the living conditions of my family and me, as well as my fellow citizens,” the 55-year-old woman in Tehran told ITV News.
“In my view, as a country located at least 1,200 kilometres away from Israel and Palestine, we should not meddle in their political and border destinies.”
Would Iranians go to war?
Tehran's brutal response to protests across the country in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, who died after being allegedly detained by IRG for not correctly wearing the headscarf, soaring prices and a government more fixated on fanning instability across the region than improving living standards for their people, appears to have pushed many Iranians to consider leaving for good.
According to Home Office data, last year Iranians were the second largest group after Afghans to come to the UK in small boats. The increasing numbers willing to risk their lives on a dinghy crossing the Channel appears to suggest the next generation of Iranians have given up on Iran.
Despite widespread dissatisfaction among the youth of Iran, and a large number of people trying to leave the country for Europe in search of a better life abroad, the 49-year-old manager hopes that "when Iran’s honour is at stake, those same dissatisfied youths become homeland soldiers".
But others do not believe that a war with Israel would mobilise a dissatisfied population; many do not believe the regime’s narrative that Israel would invade Iran. And if Tel Aviv did step foot into Iranian territory, there are those that would see them, not as aggressors, but as liberators.
Will things change?
Countries, including the UK and US, heavily sanctioned Iran after Tehran breached the 2015 nuclear agreement when then US president Donald Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018. The consequences are hitting ordinary Iranians' wallets and the cost of living has squeezed Iranian households further.
There are also accusations the clerical establishment has used its increasing resources to fund their proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as arming Putin in his war with Ukraine rather than easing living standards for their people.
The Islamic Republic of Iran was established in the revolution of 1979 when the Shah was overthrown by religious cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his followers. The current ayatollah, Ali Khamenei, 85, came to power in the wake of Iran’s devastating eight-year war with Iraq that left millions dead. His power has consolidated over the years and hard-liners control every lever of power within both security services and political bodies.
As such, hopes of a more diplomatic resolution are remote: tough talking clerical leaders appear eager to flex their firepower and disrupt the region with malign meddling.
Caught in the middle are Iranians paying with economic hardship and falling living standards, and hoping that soaring prices and international isolation are the only price they have to pay.
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