Anti-regime Iranians who initially embraced President Donald Trump's promise to "rescue" them from their oppressive government are now expressing deep disillusionment with his military campaign, according to new reporting from The Guardian.
Many Iranian dissidents had harbored hope that Trump's administration would intervene militarily against the Islamic Republic. That hope transformed into despair after a fortnight of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that have killed hundreds of civilians, destroyed critical infrastructure, and damaged irreplaceable cultural heritage sites.
"They are also lying! Like the regime has been lying to us," said Amir, a University of Tehran student and anti-regime protester, speaking to The Guardian. "You are all worse than each other."
The turning point came when Israeli forces struck fuel depots in Tehran, coating the capital in toxic oil rain and blackening the sky. The strikes also damaged ancient landmarks including the 14th-century Golestan Palace and the 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace in Isfahan.
"I genuinely believe now they [the US and Israel] didn't have a plan," Amir told The Guardian. "If the regime is what you want to hit, where do you draw the line? What about us, the ordinary Iranians? We rely on this civil infrastructure."
Many protesters now fear the conflict mirrors the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which promised liberation but delivered civil war. Other Iranian dissidents report viewing the bombing campaign as "carpet bombing" that has killed civilians indiscriminately.
"A significant portion of the people I've been speaking to, after witnessing the killing of civilians, have altered their perception of military intervention," one Tehran protester told The Guardian.
