A sense of disbelief fell over Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Sunday as the country came to grips with its new reality after its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a day of American and Israeli strikes.
Large crowds poured into the streets of Tehran and other cities across the country early Sunday morning to celebrate his death, amid fireworks, dancing and cheering. Hours later, scores more tearful mourners came out to the streets to grieve his death, waving Iranian flags and holding photos of Ayatollah Khamenei.
By midday, as fresh waves of airstrikes hit the capital, a strange cadence was playing out across the streets of Tehran: First the booms from the renewed assaults, followed by the sounds of many people cheering on the strikes they hope will bring down the government.
“It’s surreal,” said Azim, a 39 year-old in Karaj, a city west of Tehran. “Imagine your country is being attacked, but because of how disconnected people feel from the government, they react like that.” Like many others interviewed for this article, he gave only his first name out of fear of reprisals by the government.
Azim said he and his neighbors had been celebrating the death of Ayatollah Khamenei out on the streets until dawn, he said. Later Sunday morning, he drove around the area to take in the scene, passing government checkpoints still manned by Revolutionary Guards soldiers and members of the feared Basij militia, a voluntary subsidiary of the Revolutionary Guards. But even they seemed to be in shock, he said.
Azim said he spoke to one member of the Basij militia who said he was unsure what to do.
“They couldn’t believe that with the first missile, the first strike, Ali Khamenei would be hit,” Azim said.
Late Sunday morning, large crowds poured into Engelab Square in Tehran to mourn the leader’s death. Many waved Iranian flags and held pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei, according to photos posted by the Iranian judiciary’s news agency.
Still others were gripped by the uncertainty of what was still to come, as airstrikes rang out around them.
Payman, 45, a resident of Tehran, was preparing for worst-case scenarios.
Worried about food shortages, he had stocked up on bread and water. He was preoccupied about his savings invested in the Iranian stock market, which he feared might collapse if the situation worsened. He was jolted with fear every time he heard strikes on the city.
Everything happening in the country felt “unbelievable and unpredictable,” Payman said. “I feel like this system can’t sustain itself because people don’t accept it anymore.”
Still, he added, most Iranians just want their basic needs met. If the government could strike a deal with the United States that would lift sanctions, improve the economy and stop the airstrikes, Iranians might stop pushing for more serious change, he said.
Arian, 32, of Tehran, shared that pragmatic view. As he drove around Tehran on Sunday morning in search of gasoline for his car, plumes of smoke from airstrikes billowed into the sky, according to a video he recorded, which was verified by The New York Times.
Even though some people were happy, he was not sure whether the swell of celebratory fervor could translate into substantial change.
If American or Israeli leaders put out a call for people to take to the streets to demand an overhaul of the government, “it could turn into chaos and violence,” Arian said. “They don’t really have the strength or capacity, but they have a strong desire.”
Christina Goldbaum is The Times’s bureau chief in Beirut, leading coverage of Lebanon and Syria.
The post ‘It’s Surreal’: Iranians in Disbelief After Supreme Leader Assassinated appeared first on New York Times.
