We’ve been speaking to Iranians during one week of war. Here’s what they said. 6 hours ago. Caroline HawleyWorld affairs correspondent. Getty Images. When Hamid heard news of the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a week ago today, he felt a wave of euphoria and took his wife and daughter into the street outside his home in Tehran to celebrate.. For the next few days, as US and Israeli bombs slammed into buildings across the capital, the family went onto the roof of the house to watch the airstrikes coming in, cheering every time a regime target was hit.. “Try to find anywhere else on this earth where the population would be happy with an external attack on their country,” he told me, via a cousin in the UK.. “But we now have hope that the regime will soon be gone. We are happy.”. Hamid – not his real name – is not alone.. Alongside colleagues from BBC Persian, we have been hearing from people inside and outside Iran on a momentous week for them, for the future of their country and for the entire region.. BBC Persian is the Persian language service of BBC News, used by 24 million people around the world – the majority in Iran – despite being blocked and routinely jammed by Iranian authorities.. In a police state under bombardment, with severe internet restrictions in place, it is impossible to fully gauge the mood across a vast nation of 90 million people.. Residents of Tehran have received messages warning: “If your connection to the internet continues in the coming days, your line will be blocked and you will be referred to judicial authorities.”. AFP via Getty Images. Trump demands Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’ as Israel says it hit leadership bunker ‘with 50 jets’. The regime still instils fear and no one who voices any opposition to it is willing to give their name for fear of the repercussions on them or their family.. But a week on, while some people are still celebrating every strike on the regime, others are increasingly frightened, questioning the motives and endgame of the war.. “The goal of this war isn’t to bring about freedom or democracy for the Iranian people,” Ali told us.. “It’s for the geopolitical benefit of Israel, the US and Arab countries in the region.”. Mohammad, who is in his 30s and lives in Tehran, said that he had wanted a deal between the US and Iran that would have avoided the war.. “Deep down, I always hoped an agreement would be made,” he said.. He had thought that he would be happy at Khamenei’s death, but in the end “felt nothing”.. He told my colleague Soroush Pakzad that he is now filled with uncertainty about the future – and, with regime checkpoints everywhere on the ground and bombardments from the sky, he is afraid.. Others Iranians speak of feeling a mix of fear, stress and hope.. One woman told me that I would have to live in Iran for 40 years to understand the complexity of what she and other Iranians are now feeling.. “We laugh and are happy when the regime is hit, but when childr
