For me, one of the most frustrating things about this new conflict in the Middle East

is how difficult it is to understand what's happening in Iran from Iranians.

If you look online, the death of Ayatollah Khamani seems to have inspired equal parts

celebration and mourning. Iran was already a closed-off country. We went to war suddenly. Getting a line

of communication is hard on a good day. So earlier this week, I asked all of you to help out.

Hey, Mary, this is Jashin.

I know we've got Iranian-American listeners.

Hi, my name is Sahara.

I'm an Iranian.

I figured some of you might be hearing from family.

We heard from some of our family members very limited through different mechanisms.

I have to ask one member of my family who called to call another member through that they can call,

and we still haven't heard.

And this is because the Islamic Republic cut the Wi-Fi off.

So they can only make calls up.

At this point, the number of people who believe this regime should still be negotiated with is vanishingly small.

Even those who support what's going on called in and told us about their bitter trade-off.

We look at these targeted attacks as a necessary last resort.

The IRGC has automatic weapons and all Iranians have to fight with their bodies.

What I would say is that the majority of the Iranian diaspora are happy with the current military operation against the regime.

They are hopeful that it will lead to a collapse of the regime, but many of them are also sanguine and realize that this regime is so entrenched and so fanatical and so ideologically committed and so consolidated as a regime that they will absorb these blows

and they will hang on to power.

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