‘Protests are over, Iranians trust Israel more than US,’ Tehran resident tells Israeli radio station

The protests against the Iranian regime have effectively been crushed by the bloody crackdown, and Iranians would prefer Israeli military operations against the regime to U.S. actions, a citizen of the capital, Tehran, told Israel’s Army Radio (Galatz) in an interview broadcast on Monday.

Israeli journalists Yanir Kozin and Sefi Ovadia spoke to an unnamed resident in Tehran via simultaneous translation provided by Rani Amrani, an Israeli who operates a Persian-language radio station called Radio Iran, which broadcasts from Israel to Iran.

Using the alias “Arash” to hide his identity, he stressed that “the protests are over,” telling Amrani, “There is a lot of fear and terror on the streets, and the cost of living is still high, of course. A lot of death with all that’s happened two, three weeks ago, a lot of grief among the Iranian people.”

Asked whether he could share his personal experience of the protest wave, Amrani said Arash “did participate one time, it was very frightening. He heard shots, tear gas, saw blood, and many things that frightened him very much.”

After several weeks of country-wide protests, regime forces launched a violent campaign of suppression that is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people. There is no verifiable death toll, as the regime implemented a broad shutdown of the internet that continues to this day.

However, several human rights groups based abroad have been painstakingly verifying the available reports of deaths.

A statistic widely cited as a plausible minimal number of deaths has been compiled by HRANA (Human Rights Activists in Iran News Agency). According to the group’s latest tally, “by the end of the thirty-sixth day since the start of the protests, the total number of confirmed deaths has reached 6,842."

Additionally, "6,425 of those killed have been recorded as ‘protesters,’ while 146 fall under the category of ‘children under 18.’ In addition, 214 individuals affiliated with the government and 57 ‘civilian, non-protesters’ have been reported.”

The group noted that it continues to review 11,280 other cases. Estimates say that a final death toll could be as high as 40,000.

The opposition-affiliated news outlet Iran International on Monday cited an informed source saying that the regime gave security forces free rein to use lethal force during the particularly intense crackdown on Jan. 8–9, aiming to spread fear and deter the protesters.

The source cited comments made in a secret briefing by a senior government official to other senior officials and local governors. The official reportedly said the regime forces were granted “full authority and a blank check to attack, with the aim of creating maximum fear to deter the resurgence of protests,” without distinction between civilians and others.

Speaking about the ongoing stand-off between the Iranian regime and U.S. President Donald Trump, who had promised the protesters that “help is on the way,” Arash expressed skepticism that U.S. strikes would reenergize the protests.

He said the Iranian people are “a bit afraid of a war with the US,” citing American wars in Vietnam and Iraq to argue that “the US doesn’t only harm regimes but also kills civilians and hits infrastructure.”

However, he noted that Iranians trusted Israel more than the U.S. in this regard. “But Israel operated in a targeted manner, hitting the IRGC [in the 12-Day War], and he hopes that if there’ll be a war, that it will be like how Israel operated,” Amrani translated.

“If the U.S. attacks, I think people will be afraid. It’s not certain they will go out into the streets; they might even end up supporting the regime more,” Arash said.

However, he noted that a targeted U.S. strike against the regime’s leadership could severely harm its stability.

“If Khamenei and his sons are eliminated, there could be a very big change that could lead to a revolution,” he said.

Amrani later affirmed, “The regime stands or falls on Khamenei, many regime operatives are loyal because of him,” arguing that the regime would collapse faster once the ayatollah is gone.

Despite mutual threats by their leaders, both the U.S. and Iran signaled on Monday that they are ready to negotiate an agreement to end tensions and are reportedly set to send representatives to a summit in Ankara, Turkey, this week.