Standing among a crowd gathered in central Tehran late one night in May, Mohsen, 34, appeared visibly frustrated as he spoke.
“Why should we stay home?” he said. “So they can attack again, send their soldiers in and turn Iran into another Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya?”
Since the US-Israeli war on Iran began on 28 February, Mohsen said he has attended as many of the nightly rallies in support of the Iranian government as possible. To him, the anti-US and anti-Israel gatherings show that at least part of the country views the conflict less as a political struggle and more as a matter of national survival.
“Of course we come out every night,” he told Middle East Eye. “We want them to understand that we will never allow foreigners onto this land.”
The rallies started around the middle of March. Since then, groups of people have been gathering almost every night in major squares across Iran. They wave Iranian flags, chant against the United States and Israel and stay in the streets for hours.
