In recent days, the focus has been on the ceasefire with Iran, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz

and Israel's continued strikes in Lebanon. But less attention has been paid to the people inside

Iran, those who have borne the brunt of U.S. and Israeli attacks. What are they thinking about this

war and about the regime that governs them? For that, we turn now to Holly Dogrish. She's a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. She spent her teenage years in Tehran and now curates the Iranist. That's a weekly substack newsletter. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. So what are you hearing? What has daily life been like for people in Iran, the people that you've been speaking with?

Well, I should note that there's been an internet shutdown for now 41 days.

It was state-imposed.

And so what's peering out of the country is mostly anecdotal.

And what I'm hearing at this juncture is that a lot of Iranians are confused about what's happening.

There was this unprecedented massacre in January, and then the president said that help was on the

way.

And then now the ceasefire happens with the regime that they wanted ousted, and they're having

to live with that.

But then there's also a sense of relief from Iranians that were anti-war to begin with,

or maybe anti-war over time because they saw all these civilian casualties.

There have been at least 1,700, according to the group human rights activists in Iran.

You mentioned the president's rhetoric.

That social media post earlier this week where he said, quote,

a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen,

but it probably will. How was that interpreted by people in Iran?

So it really shook Iranians. I had Iranian Americans actually reaching out to me and saying,

is the president going to drop a nuclear weapon on our families in Iran?

And then we had the White House actually issue a statement saying that that wasn't going to be a reality.

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