We’ve been speaking to Foad Izadi, a professor in the World Studies department at the University of Tehran.
He says Iranians are “continuing to be shocked” at the escalating conflict as Trump had been speaking positively about the nuclear talks with Iran up till the start of the Israeli attacks.
“We now know that was a deception operation. Today, Trump, in his statement, said that United States and Israel are working as a team, and the people in Iran now realise that this process that they thought would result in a diplomatic solution has instead resulted in a major war, with hundreds of civilian casualties and damage to Iranian infrastructure,” Izadi told Al Jazeera from Tehran.
Iranians also fear Israel’s ultimate aim “is not only the change of the Iranian government, but also the break up of Iran”, he said.
“The Israelis have been advocating the balkanization of Iran, taking the oil rich sections of Iran out, and sort of supporting a policy that would result in Iran being divided in three or four countries. The US generally opposed that idea for different reasons, but it seems the US policy towards Middle East has been taken over by Israel, and Trump is just following Netanyahu’s lead, and he’s doing what Netanyahu is asking him to do, including this issue of the breakup of Iran,” Izadi said.
These fears are now leading to a “rally around the flag” effect in Iran, he added.
Published by Al Zazeera
