How Iranians See the War

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**Rachel Abrams** (0:34)
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. Since the war with Iran began, President Trump has gone from urging Iranians to take cover and protect themselves to threatening to annihilate them. But with the ceasefire set to expire this week, very little has been heard from the Iranian people themselves. Today, my colleague Clare Toeniskoetter speaks to Iranians about how they view this war.
It's Tuesday, April 21st.

**Donald Trump** (1:23)
To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (1:31)
The day the US and Israel launched its joint military operation against Iran, President Trump posted a video on True Social.

**Donald Trump** (1:38)
When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (1:48)
He urged the Iranian people to rise up against the government.

**Donald Trump** (1:51)
Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (2:06)
But then bombs started to fall. People did not rise up. And so I wondered, what did Iranians think of this new war? And the presidents called to action.
So I started reaching out to them. In the first days of the war, I sent nearly 100 messages, mostly to residents of Tehran, the site of some of the heaviest bombing.
Still, I heard nothing. I could see most of my messages weren't even being opened. It wasn't that people didn't want to talk. They couldn't. Not only is it extremely dangerous for Iranians to speak to an American journalist, phone calls could be monitored by the regime.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:46)
Iran has been in the dark for days, forced into a near-total internet blackout.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (2:51)
But the bigger problem was a communication blackout.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:54)
Days have passed without word from family and friends.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (2:57)
The Iranian government had effectively cut off the country from the rest of the world. The number I kept seeing was 99%.
99% of Iranians who normally had access to the internet now didn't. I was trying to reach the remaining 1%. These would be people with workarounds like VPNs or enough money to afford satellite communications like Starlink that could get them online for even just a few minutes.
And then, almost a week into the war, my colleagues and I got a few replies.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:30)
Hello?

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (3:31)
Some of them only had enough internet to send text messages. But others were able to send short voice memos.

**SPEAKER_7** (3:38)
I am in my own bedroom. I can say we've been through a lot lately.

**SPEAKER_8** (3:52)
We heard a loud explosion.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:54)
I heard some loud bomb noises.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (3:57)
At that time, people were still reeling from the war's initial shocks.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:01)
I woke up.

**SPEAKER_8** (4:01)
And shortly after that, a huge cloud of smoke drifted into our classroom.

**SPEAKER_10** (4:07)
Right now, the Iranian state media is telling the people of Iran that the Ayatollah has been killed.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (4:15)
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had just been killed in an airstrike. Many of the people I spoke with were critical of the regime, like the vast majority of Iranians.
Their spirits seemed high.

**SPEAKER_8** (4:32)
People in the streets, we were chanting slogans and making the victory signs, saying, military help from Israel and the United States. It's here.
It finally happened. They are here.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (4:50)
Then there were the Iranians who supported the regime.
Many of those people were grieving. But others were angry and pledged to fight against the American and Israeli invaders. One Iranian who supported the regime said he heard people chanting, death, to Trump.

**SPEAKER_7** (5:19)
I think he should have would. Every day the bombs are being dropped.

**Clare Toeniskoetter** (5:27)
When it came to Trump's call to overthrow the government, many of those opposed to the regime said it didn't make sense to take to the streets in protest. It was too dangerous.
One source told me her friend's daughter was shot and killed on the street by what she described as pro-regime forces.