A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
NPR has reporters all over the Middle East covering the war in Iran. Iran itself is off limits to most Western journalists, so we've sent correspondents to Iran's borders with Iraq and Turkey. NPR's Emily Feng has been speaking with Iranians crossing into Turkey. Emily, what have you been hearing?
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: So Iranians have been telling us about hearing bombardment, especially if they're in Tehran, all the last month. They've also told us about heavy Iranian security on the streets, and there have been a few people who have criticized this war.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: This man says here, for example, that he believes Israel is bombing Iran to expand its borders as part of a greater Israel plan. Like all Iranians in this story, he wanted to stay anonymous because speaking to foreign media carries the risk of arrest in Iran. Some people even told us there were signs on some roads in Iran warning them not to speak to journalists. But the vast majority of Iranians did not share that first man's view. They're coming with their friends and with their families to this crossing that I've been meeting people in these chilly, snow-covered mountains to the east of Turkey. And most people told us they supported the strikes. Here's one.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: She's saying, "we needed a foreign military intervention to save us. The U.S. and Israel already killed the former Supreme Leader Khamenei, and I hope they kill the rest of the leadership soon." It was shocking to hear her bluntness and to hear people celebrating foreign governments killing Iranian leaders, and that stuck with me. And so I've been asking people all week to explain why they feel this way.
MARTÍNEZ: And why did they feel this way?
FENG: The simple answer is Iranians feel they have gone through a degree of suffering under Iran's theocratic regime that is unendurable. And they say that they will risk death in order to see their government fall. Here is another man we spoke to whose hometown was really active in these anti-government protests in January.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Persian).
FENG: He was telling us that everything has gone from his hometown. What is left is the bitterness of 47 years that is strangling us Iranians. He told us, for him, a turning point was the bloody government crackdown that came after the protests, which a U.S.-based human rights monitor confirmed, in which Iran killed more than 7,000 of its own citizens. Though, many Iranians like him believe the death toll is far higher.
Another man, a former technician who spent seven years in prison in Iran, says his entire family is still back in the country. But he supports the strikes. And he was trying to explain the kind of pain that could make one wish death on their own government. And when he was explaining this to me, he reached over, A, he pinched me. And he said, I know you know pain, but you don't understand real pain.
MARTÍNEZ: Wow. You know, President Trump had an initial threat to bomb Iranian power plants if Iran didn't open up the Strait of Hormuz and then his extension of a deadline because of what he called productive talks with some unnamed Iranian officials. So what have people been saying about that?
FENG: They're relieved that Trump has postponed this threat on civilian infrastructure. But there is worry and there's even anger that the U.S. may settle with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, on its nuclear program and then keep the current government in place. Iranians tell us they're afraid of dying. They are afraid for their families. But they also hope that the hundreds of civilians who have been killed so far in U.S. and Israeli strikes, that their deaths mean something.
There's a telecommunications blackout in Iran now. But a 42-year-old Iranian who lives just north of Tehran did send us a text last night saying people around him had endured so much because of Iran's government. They were feeling really emotional about this war. And it would be unacceptable, according to him, for the war to end and then to leave Iran's government in place. He told us that the war is something that they're tolerating because they're hoping that it'll eventually lead to their freedom.
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Emily Feng in Van, Turkey. Emily thanks for bringing us these voices.
FENG: Thanks, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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