{"id":404283,"date":"2026-04-18T00:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/404283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T00:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:48:10","slug":"iran-has-been-there-for-1000-years-this-will-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/404283\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Iran has been there for 1,000 years. This will pass\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

“They bombed,” Peyman Nasser\u2019s mother-in-law screamed as a loud explosion vibrated down the phone line before it went dead.<\/p>\n

Many people died in that attack on Iran\u2019s capital Tehran<\/a>, said Mr Nasser, an Iranian-born businessman who has lived in Cork for many years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His mother-in-law, thankfully, survived.<\/p>\n

That attack was last June during the previous US and Israeli strikes on Iran during the 12-Day War.<\/p>\n

That experience pushed Mr Nasser to convince his family to leave Tehran in the days before the latest US and Israeli attacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Long-termLong-term resident in Cork, Iranian-born businessman Peyman Nasser, reflects on the US-Israeli war on Iran and the fear he has for the safety of family members there. Picture: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

This invasion, which began on February 28, has killed thousands of people and destabilised the entire region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, the sea corridor through which one fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas is exported.<\/p>\n

The war has triggered the worst oil price shock in history.<\/p>\n

Also, the International Monetary Fund warned that the conflict could push the world towards recession if it is prolonged.<\/p>\n

Mr Nasser\u2019s family has been safe since they left Tehran for a more rural area in late February.<\/p>\n

However, they are frustrated, he said.<\/p>\n

Against the regime but pro-Iran<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 700 schools have been bombed so the schools are online, like covid,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are being terrorised, 80-year-olds, children.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many houses have been destroyed, more than 80,000 homes. More than 300 medical centres.<\/p>\n

\n Schools, universities, research centres\u00a0\u2014 they have been attacked, some completely destroyed.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cBut Iran has a 90m population. And this country will not surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Nasser said that while he is opposed to the current Iranian regime, he is \u201cpro-Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIranians are nationalists who love their country. They may hate the regime but still love their country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AtAt Tajrish Square in Tehran, a gardener waters plants in front of portraits of children killed in the\u00a0 missile strike on a school in the city of Minab which killed at least 165 people, most of them children. Picture: AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n

However, US and Israeli attacks will likely strengthen support for the regime, he said.<\/p>\n

And the Israeli and US attacks give the Iranian regime reasons to be even stricter with security, he said.<\/p>\n

There is also more support for pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and from co-operating with the UN\u2019s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, with growing support for developing nuclear weapons to protect themselves, he said.<\/p>\n

Mahya Ostovar<\/p>\n

However, Mahya Ostovar<\/a>, assistant professor at the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics in the University of Galway, said that revulsion at the violence of the Iranian regime in January\u2019s bloody protests has not been forgotten.<\/p>\n

\"MahyaMahya Ostovar is the assistant professor of business information systems at the University\u00a0of Galway.<\/p>\n

She does not believe that the war will push people who were anti-regime towards supporting it, binding once fractious groups together.<\/p>\n

However, since Iran has had a media blackout for more than 40 days, with no legal access to the open internet, she said it is hard to be sure what people\u2019s mindsets are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that people have turned and they have become pro-regime,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause in early January the regime basically killed around 30,000 protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that statements from Western powers decrying the illegality of the war often fail to include details about the Iranian regime\u2019s violence against its own people.<\/p>\n

\n It is still a terrorist regime. It has killed tens of thousands of its own people.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it has caused war in the region, committed terrorist acts, even in the Western world, through its proxies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Ostovar is from Iran but moved to Ireland in 2022.<\/p>\n

She said that the Iranian regime, like Russia, has learned to use propaganda as a powerful tool of war.<\/p>\n

It allows these regimes to infiltrate thought in the West and \u201cwin the narrative war to some extent\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is much cheaper than military interventions and can be highly effective at destabilising an enemy.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocratic presidents have different pressures on them. And one of them is public opinion,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

This has been viewed as a Western weakness that authoritarian regimes such as Iran and Russia are keen to exploit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran is authoritarian. And there are major differences between democracies and dictatorships.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘A whole civilization will die tonight’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comments such as US president Donald Trump\u2019s declaration on social media that “a whole civilization will die tonight<\/a>, never to be brought back again\u201d if Iran did not open the Strait of Hormuz on April 7 are \u201cvery worrying,\u201d said Ms Ostovar.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump posted on social media earlier this month that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.’ Picture: Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP<\/p>\n

But what worries her more is the thought of the current war ending and the Iranian regime remaining in power. Her family remain in Iran, her parents in Tehran. \u201cAnd the strikes there are intense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although a heavily monitored intranet functions in Iran, an internet connection with the outside world is illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly a small group of people have access to a very fragile internet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my parents can call me on the phone. They do every few days. It\u2019s very expensive to call right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I cannot call them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Communications are so tightly controlled by the regime that \u201cbasically any type of communication from outside the country is blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Censorship in Iran\u00a0<\/p>\n

The level of surveillance in Iran is extremely high, she said. Phones are monitored, as are the streets, with checkpoints common where cars can be searched and phones seized.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey search your phone. If they find you can connect to the internet, that\u2019s a crime, you will be arrested,\u201d Ms Ostovar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are scared. Everything can be a crime and they [the regime] is more sensitive now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can accuse you of spying for Israel or for the US. These are the crimes that they can easily execute you for.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the judiciary is corrupted. There are no real trial processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forced confessions are common, she said.<\/p>\n

Many of those executed for January\u2019s protests have been for crimes admitted to under torture, she said.<\/p>\n

Finding a reliable lawyer is also difficult, with many human rights lawyers being jailed.<\/p>\n

Sham trials and executions\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people who have been executed have been in sham trials,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the war, they have already executed at least 14 political prisoners.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there are more people on death row now. And the chief of their judiciary basically said that we need faster trials for spies of the foreign powers, basically people arrested during the war accused of being spies for the US or Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has a rich history as a highly sophisticated and progressive culture, said Ms Ostovar, and the dark stain of the Islamic regime and the current conflict that is killing thousands of civilians will end at some stage.<\/p>\n

“Iran has remained for 1,000 years. This is a short period of its history and it will pass.<\/p>\n

\n The Islamic revolution that happened 47 years ago was a historical mistake and people want to correct it.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIran was on a trajectory that could lead to democracy. But that trajectory was interrupted by the Islamic revolution which was basically a jihadist movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope has always been that we get rid of the regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I don\u2019t think that it\u2019s impossible. This regime is at its weakest form now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can criticise Trump and Netanyahu, you can have marches in the western cities to say \u2018no\u2019 to war.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can part with democratic presidents like Trump and Netanyahu \u2014 but can you talk with authoritarian regimes like the Islamic Republic and tell them not to kill their people?\u201d<\/p>\n

People in Iran are used to war\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ms Ostovar\u2019s family in Tehran \u201ctries not to scare\u201d her with details of the war. But her home neighbourhood in Tehran has been struck by missiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strikes on Tehran were pretty bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut many people there have lived through multiple wars now and have developed ways to live with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This would be Ms Ostovar\u2019s third war were she still in Iran \u2014 with the Iran-Iraq war, last year\u2019s 12-Day War, and the current conflict all within her lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people have learned to cope with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it really breaks my heart because at the same time these are traumas. And mentally and emotionally it can be really exhausting and really difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PeymanPeyman Nasser, originally from Iran and living in Ireland for over 30 years, was among the first protesters in Cork to stand against the war in Gaza. Now he worries about the safety of family members in Iran. Picture: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

The blows of the war and the scars they leave do not land evenly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people lost their homes. Some people live pay cheque to pay cheque and they haven’t received their salary for two months, three months.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo people are in different conditions. Some people are really more vulnerable and for them, it’s not easy to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for people who have better economic conditions and who were not directly affected in terms of losing their homes or losing their family members during the war, they are still living to some extent a life. But it is getting more difficult.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

New Iranian Democratic Diaspora Network<\/p>\n

This week, Mahya\u00a0Ostovar was involved in launching the Iranian Democratic Diaspora Network in Ireland (IDDNI).<\/p>\n

The group aims to be a voice of human rights for the Iranian people whose voices are being silenced in Iran through internet blackouts and repression.<\/p>\n

And it aims to provide grounded Iranian insights to Irish audiences.<\/p>\n

The IDDNI is a female-led, non-partisan and multi-ethnic initiative based in Galway, Limerick, Dublin, and Cork.<\/p>\n

It is calling on Irish and European policymakers to ensure that no sustainable diplomatic engagement with Iran can exclude the Iranian people themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means embedding human rights monitoring, civil society consultation, and diaspora representation into any framework of engagement,\u201d the IDDNI said<\/p>\n

“It also means recognising that legitimacy in Iran is not defined solely by state power, but by a population that has repeatedly demonstrated its desire for democratic change \u2014 at immense personal cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor over four decades, Iranians have lived under a political system that severely restricts fundamental freedoms and suppresses any form of political opposition through intimidation, imprisonment, and execution.”<\/p>\n

This week, US president Donald Trump expressed confidence that an agreement could soon be reached to end the Iran war and urged the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah group to hold its fire as a 10-day truce went into effect between Lebanon and Israel.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump said the next meeting between the United States and Iran could take place over the weekend, and an extension of a two-week ceasefire was possible.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, announced on social media that passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is “declared completely open” for the rest of the ceasefire, in line with the ceasefire in Lebanon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“They bombed,” Peyman Nasser\u2019s mother-in-law screamed as a loud explosion vibrated down the phone line before it went…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37325,79,969,61,11829,60,43],"class_list":["post-404283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cork-opinion","tag-cork-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}