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It’s our second day in Iran – a country at war, and its capital, Tehran, is both tense and calm. Many fled, those left behind continued to live as best they could.
There was the sound of outgoing anti-aircraft fire and the thud of incoming missiles. We were told that police stations and checkpoints were frequently targeted.
But just two weeks had passed, people seemed barely aware of the sounds of war nearby.
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At the market, people shopped ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, at the end of the week. Shoppers expressed their fears and concerns, and most were unwilling to express them on camera.
Of course this wasn’t just a war, it came after weeks of protests and the crackdown that followed.
Some expressed hope that there would be some kind of change after the conflict but most had more pressing concerns: last night’s bombing came too close to home and the fact that no one knows how this conflict will end.
After a marathon 48 hour journey overland through the snowy passes of the Armenian border Iranwe entered Tehran.
Most striking were the faces of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and his murdered father, visible everywhere, on huge banners lining the highway. Authorities are trying to project continuity.
The faces of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and his murdered father are everywhere in Tehran
The government appears to be in full control but a new leader has not yet been seen in public. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dr Saeed Khatibzadeh confirmed that he was alive and ‘in power’ when we interviewed him.
His message was angry and defiant. The war, he stressed, had no mandate and was illegal. And as speculation grows about America’s next move, he had a bad warning for the enemy.
US leaders should keep Vietnam in mind, he told us, if they are thinking about playing “football” in Iran. This, he said, was the act of a rogue state and the US would regret it.
We’re here for a week, one of the few international news teams granted visas at this point.
The capital is covered in war scars
The capital is scarred by Israeli and American air campaigns. The entire building was level with the ground. The attack might be called precise and on target, but try telling that to the elderly man we found in the blackened ruins of his apartment after a missile hit his neighbor’s house at the start of the war.
The attack occurred in the afternoon without warning. The blast wave blew through the windows and filled the flat with dust and smoke. When things improved, he found his wife and daughter injured, hit by shrapnel and injured with broken bones.
They underwent surgery at the hospital but had to go home as soon as possible. A number of hospitals were also hit, we were told. They begin to recover but their home is destroyed.
And 24 hours a day, the people of this city have to live wondering if the building next door is also on the hit list and maybe they will be next.
