‘The repression machine is still deployed’: Exclusive testimony from a Tehran resident

“On Saturday night [March 7], it started very violently, with terrifying sounds. The sky was completely lit up. The strikes hit oil depots. Living conditions are already bad, and this makes things even harder for us.

Everything was black on Sunday morning in Tehran. I had never seen anything like it in my life. The air was filthy, and rain was falling in the courtyard of the house where I was staying. It was as if someone had poured oil on the ground; everything was covered in soot.

I don’t know to what extent it is harmful to breathe, or how toxic the air was. But it is clearly chemical smoke, and I tell myself that it must inevitably be damaging.

The only thing we can do in the face of this is to wear a mask. I went out once or twice to buy groceries, and there was nobody in the streets.

The only stroke of luck we had was that afterwards, a strong wind picked up, and the rain helped purify the air.

Whether it’s Trump, Netanyahu, [US Secretary of Defence] Pete Hegseth, I don’t understand what their plan is. What are they preparing? They speak in a very confused way.

I would prefer it if the bombs they drop were targeted at military bases. There are so many bases, so many checkpoints, so many barracks, rather than targeting our oil depots.”

Outside, the security forces are still firmly in place

“Maybe some important targets have already been hit, but all those repression centres remain. They should start with those! They have identified them; they should strike them now. All those facilities are still intact.

They tell us: ‘You must take to the streets when we announce it.’ But the conditions for ordinary people to go out into the streets are not there because the security forces are still firmly in place outside.

Meanwhile, pro-regime supporters mobilise every evening, between 8pm and 10pm, as if they had an appointment. And the repression machine is still deployed. I would say 70 percent of it is still there. In the streets and on the main squares, you see military vehicles that we had only seen in Hollywood films until now. These vehicles and all this equipment are so intimidating that we dare not even approach them.

And then there are the checkpoints. At some of them, they have even called on very young men. At one checkpoint I crossed, the boy posted there with a weapon did not even have a moustache yet.”

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© France 24

The designation of Mojtaba Khamenei is ‘a hammer blow’

“Until Sunday evening, before Mojtaba Khamenei was designated [as the new Supreme Leader], I really had hope. I was telling myself that we were finally going to be saved. We truly needed outside intervention.

But since Sunday evening, since it happened, I’ve felt really bad. I tell myself: ‘What if the situation backfires? What if compromises take place? What if peace conditions are created – if they make concessions or something else?’

The designation of Mojtaba Khamenei was the worst news we could have received during this war. It’s like a hammer blow when we are already living under difficult conditions. It gave me a horrible feeling … the worst one you can experience.”

Read moreKhamenei replaces Khamenei: Iran defies Trump, signals continuity

“I hope that, as they [the US-Israeli coalition] say, they will eliminate him quickly because the people, however divided they may be, have one thing in common: wanting to put an end to the Islamic Republic.

The Iranian people have been deceived so many times. I hope that this time it will not be the case, and that the real objective will be freedom for Iranians. Even if it is a very idealistic way of thinking, I am aware of that.”

This first-person account, translated from Persian to English, was obtained by the France 24 Observers team and France 24 senior correspondent Julie Dungelhoeff.