Ugly public mood adds to paranoia in Iran as it considers war with Israel

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Description

Andreas Krieg, an Iran expert at King’s College London’s school of security studies, says anti-regime sentiments “are extremely strong, particularly among millennials and Gen Z”.

He adds: “I think the regime will struggle to keep these people on side and we’re seeing that with various outbreaks of protests over the years and obviously it is very much a simmering level of dissent.”

There is the growing problem of the IRGC’s overseas commitments… they see the Axis of Resistance, as Iran calls it, as a Iran-funded entity, [which means] less money is publicly available within Iran to actually deal with the economic crisis in the country.”

Krieg, however, draws a distinction between the hardline anti-regime diaspora in the US and Europe, and the majority of ordinary Iranians.

He says some in the former group appear to “completely disregard the war on Gaza and the plight of Palestinians”, and adds: “I wouldn’t say the same about ordinary Iranians within Iran… they don’t necessarily turn pro-Israel.

“Iranians are very proud to be Iranians and they don’t want to be seen as a tool or an instrument of the United States or Israel. Obviously, Israel doesn’t really care about Iran’s fate. It doesn’t care about the wider Persian civilization. They’re looking for potential allies, short term allies, and, you know, useful idiots that they can instrumentalise.”
Period8 Aug 2024
Held atiNews, United Kingdom

Keywords

  • Iran
  • Israel