Suzanne Harrington: Anyone justifying Iran civilian casualties will have blood on their hands
My friend Philippa is desperately worried about her relatives.
Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandchildren who live in affluent neighbourhoods in Tehran — areas an out-of-control Netanyahu is now bombing because it's where Iran's political leaders live.
One of her aunts is 92 and lives alone. Mossad has been detonating car bombs around the city — a classic terrorist tactic, leaving civilians duly terrified.
Already there are petrol and food shortages. The internet was down — she's been unable to contact family members.
Trump's call to 'evacuate Tehran' is, says cultural historian Dr Nahid Siamdoust, 'extremely disconcerting'.
She wonders where its 15 million inhabitants are supposed to go. Or how to get there. Or what to do then.
Meanwhile, Israel is doing its usual trick of bombing hospitals while presenting to the world as a victim.
Israel has also been bombing Iran's media HQ, which is located in a built-up residential area — the equivalent of dropping bombs on Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
And yes, Iran's official media has long been a propaganda tool for a brutal, repressive regime which most ordinary Iranians fear and loathe, but how can this justify bombing civilians? It can't.
Nothing can, ever, anywhere, for any reason. You'd think we'd know this by now.
REFORMS STOPPED FOR OIL
Until August 19, 1953, Iran was a progressive democracy. This was the country my friend Philippa's dad grew up in, under a democratically elected leader, a country undergoing social reforms and nationalising its oil reserves.
The West didn't like this, and so to protect Western oil interests, it instigated a CIA- and M16-backed coup to install a Western-controlled dictator, the Shah.
In 1979, the Islamic Revolution happened, and Philippa's dad, like many other Iranians who could, got out. Since then, Iran has been viewed as a rogue state with nuclear weapons, led by mad mullahs.
This madness is starkly portrayed in The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the 2024 film by exiled director Mohammad Rasoulof, sentenced in his absence to flogging and jail by the Iranian state.
The film, set in contemporary Tehran, details the daily claustrophobia and paranoid double-think of living inside a woman-hating theocracy.
In 2022, Iranian police grabbed a 22-year-old, Mahsa Amini, off the street and murdered her in a police van, sparking the Women Life Freedom protests.
Mad mullahs abound. Not a place you'd go on your holidays.
Actually, says my friend Philippa, if you did go to Iran on your holiday, you'd be overwhelmed by ordinary people's hospitality, by their warmth and generous welcome.
An Irish cyclist, Simon Jones, recently cycled through Iran, posting a love letter to its people on Instagram: 'To the country I was warned about most, but wish I didn't have to leave so soon.'
How 'on the news we just see the scary men', not 'the real you'.
Ordinary Iranians have been enduring the scary men for decades, both homegrown and foreign. They do their best to get on with it.
'The US and UK have been terrorising [Iran] for as long as any of us have been alive,' writes economic anthropologist Dr Jason Hickel.
'An Israel-Western regime change operation against Iran would lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths. We have seen this play out before, several times in past decades. Anyone who tries to justify this madness will have blood on their hands.'
Don't. Bomb. Civilians.
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The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
I visited Iran to see what it's REALLY like – I ended up in hiding in terror and fleeing for my life
EMERGING from a carpet shop in Iran's beautiful and ancient city of Esfahan, I was engulfed by a group of jostling young men. Like a desert mirage, as quickly as they had arrived they were gone. 8 Sun Man Oliver Harvey in Iran in 2012 by a poster of former Iran leader Ayatollah Khomeini Credit: Oliver Harvey 8 Tehran's skyline in the shadow of the Alborz mountain range Credit: Getty - Contributor 8 The Statue of Liberty as a skull painted on the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran Credit: AP:Associated Press Patting myself down, a zip on my trouser pocket was undone. My passport was gone. And this so-called Axis of Evil nation had no British Embassy to get a replacement. Hands trembling uncontrollably, my adrenalin-induced sweat of fear smelt like cat's urine. read more on iran There can be few more hazardous places on Earth for a journalist without papers — and an entry stamp — than the Islamic Republic of Iran. Years later Barry Rosen — a US embassy worker held hostage there in 1979 — told me how his interrogation played out. With a rifle pressed to his temple, Barry was told he had ten seconds to admit he was a spy. As the grim countdown began, the New Yorker wrestled with the dilemma of either being perceived as a traitor to his country or leaving his kids fatherless. Most read in The Sun 'On the count of five I relented,' Barry told me. 'I signed the false confession, distraught and completely ashamed.' Trump's shock Iran strikes take us to brink of global conflict and will strengthen Axis of Evil alliance, experts warn Barry would eventually return to his loved ones in the US after 444 days in captivity. Britons are high-value hostages for the regime. She was finally released when Britain paid a £400million outstanding debt to Iran. I would eventually get out — more on how later — after staying with an extraordinarily kind Iranian man who put me up in his apartment and tempered my nerves with some rocket-fuel home brew. Today — with Iran's tyrannical regime in Israeli and US crosshairs — I cast my mind back to the welcoming people I met while travelling this ancient land. These folk loathe rule by the hardline ayatollahs and long for a time less than 50 years ago when women wore miniskirts in capital Tehran, the hair bouncing on their shoulders. I had arrived in Iran — successor state of the Persian Empire — in 2012 with the idea of travelling from Tehran to Persepolis, a millennia-old desert ruin once the centrepiece of its civilisation. On the way I'd talk to ordinary people to try and understand what made this land tick. Did they really think Britain was the cursed Little Satan? 'GREAT SATAN' On landing in Tehran — a high-rise city of 9.8million shrouded by mountains — fleets of white taxis honked their way through the city's awful traffic. In the pollution-choked centre, I was struck by the number of women walking around with white plasters on their noses. Tehran has been called the nose job capital of the world. Women here also face a daily battle over what they can wear in public, with checks made by the dreaded Basij militia network. Yet many were wearing their head scarves pulled back to reveal dyed blonde hair, while their overcoats were colourful and figure-hugging. Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, when the Shah — or king — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled and replaced by hardline cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Islamic dress has been strictly enforced. Alcohol was banned, protests stifled and unmarried couples prevented from meeting in public. Today, the internet is censored and the regime attempts to scramble satellite TV signals. Near the Taleghani Metro station is the old American embassy — known here as 'the nest of spies' — its walls daubed with murals and slogans decrying the so-called Great Satan. Months after the revolution, students stormed the embassy compound and took 66 Americans hostage. 8 Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained in Iran for six years on trumped-up charges of plotting to topple the Iranian government Credit: AFP 8 US embassy worker Barry Rosen was held hostage for 444 days in 1979 Credit: AP:Associated Press A disastrous and aborted US rescue mission the following year — when eight servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash — badly damaged US president The lingering stigma of that failure was perhaps a factor in why Donald Trump took his time before deciding to unleash American firepower on Iran. In Palestine Square — in the heart of Tehran — beats a Doomsday Clock predicting Israel's end by the year 2040. The regime put it there in 2017. It helps explain why Israel launched a Nearby, I visited the British embassy compound, its gateway overlooked by lion and unicorn statues. Around six months before my visit, diplomats had fled as a frenzied mob of Iran- ian 'students' storm- ed the building and ransacked offices. It would remain shuttered for nearly four years. The rioters — who were chanting 'Death To England' — were in fact state-sponsored Basij thugs. It is the same sinister paramilitary force that is responsible for the policing of morals in this hardline Shi'ite Muslim state, including the wearing of the hijab or headscarf. Yet these repressive goons are far from representative of the beating heart of this oil-rich nation. 8 Oliver's 'Denmark' passport Credit: Supplied A short stroll away in the teeming Grand Bazaar, women shoppers, in the all- covering black cloak-like chador, were out looking for bargains. But surprisingly, Union Jack-patterned knickers and bra combos were on sale on at least three stalls. American stars and stripes underwear was also available in several shops. One black-clad shopper in her thirties told me: 'The underwear is very popular. 'We have nothing against your country.' The message that the lingerie worn under the chadors sent out was clear: Knickers to the hardliners. Indeed, as a metaphor for things being very different under the surface in Iran, it couldn't be bettered. Another stall sold 'We don't hate Britain,' a 26-year-old Red Devils-mad taxi driver told me. 'Far from it. 'We admire your freedom.' After a few days in Tehran I took a shared taxi on the five-hour, 280-mile journey to Iran's third largest city Esfahan. It's home to an exquisite square overlooked by the imposing aquamarine dome of Shah Mosque, regarded as one of the masterpieces of Persian architecture. The city's outskirts are also home to one of the largest uranium enrichment facilities in the country. 'EVERYBODY BREWS THEIR OWN NOW' Terrified that Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon to make good on its doomsday prophecy, the site was pummeled by more than two dozen US Tomahawk cruise missiles on Sunday morning. I had checked into a largely empty hotel in the city centre which had no safe for valuables. That evening I went out shopping for a Persian rug. Warily passing some soldiers in the street, I was dismayed to see them beckon me over. Yet they simply wanted a selfie alongside a rare Western traveller. Emerging with my new carpet, I was heading for an electronics store bearing a fake Apple logo when I was surrounded by pickpockets. Now passportless, I was petrified about being stopped by police and asked to produce my documents. I then remembered meeting some Iranian migrants in Calais who had told me they used to work as smugglers, trekking over the mountains from Iran to Turkey with some contraband alcohol in backpacks. Finding an internet cafe to research the journey, a man started using the computer next to me to watch porn. The idea of attempting to walk alone over rugged mountains seemed more hazardous than another internet suggestion — go to another country's embassy and throw myself at their mercy. Travelling back to Tehran I attempted to check into a hotel but the receptionist insisted I needed to show my passport. When I explained my predicament, he told me: 'I'll phone the police and they'll sort this out.' 8 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, who was toppled in 1979 Credit: Getty I told him I needed to collect my luggage then scarpered. Knowing no one in the country, a contact then put me in touch with someone who could put me up. The grey-haired father lived alone in a ramshackle flat and said I was welcome to the sofa. 'I was jailed for protesting against the Shah when he ruled,' he told me. 'Now I wish I hadn't bothered. 'This regime is far worse. 'We have far less freedom now.' Deciding the Dutch would be most amenable to a stricken Brit, I tried their embassy but it was closed for holidays. So I went to the Danes instead. They took my details and I was told to return the following day. Presented with a paper Danish temporary passport 24 hours later, I profusely thanked the embassy staff for making me an honorary viking. Taking a cab to the airport, I checked my bag on the flight then queued up at immigration dreaming of a glass of red on the plane. A bearded border guard disdainfully looked at my Danish passport, sniffing as he tossed it away: 'No good, no ministry stamp.' It was back to my new friend's sofa to watch subtitled TV, including shows with Jamie Oliver and James May. The former prisoner — raising a glass of home-distilled spirits — revealed: 'Twice every year the police go upon the roof and smash up all our satellite dishes. 'But we simply go out and buy some more. 8 A chanting crowd during the Iranian revolution in 1979 Credit: Getty 'There's a saying here that the regime closed down thousands of brewers during the revolution but created a million more. 'Everybody brews their own now.' After two days queuing at the relevant Iranian ministry — and praying that they wouldn't google my identity — I finally got my stamp. My plane banked over the vast mausoleum built to house Khomeini's remains as it headed west. One after another, most of the women on the flight removed their head scarves, then their restrictive chadors. Settling with a glass of wine, I hoped one day to return to this fascinating land under better circumstances. Now, with the ayatollahs' regime perhaps at threat of being toppled, I may one day make it to Persepolis. Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme - Sun Club.
The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Trump warns ‘bully' Iran to make peace quickly ‘or we'll be back' after US destroys hidden nuke base in huge blitz
DONALD Trump warned 'Middle East bully' Iran to make peace quickly after the US yesterday smashed its most fortified nuclear facility to smithereens. Advertisement 10 US President Donald Trump warned Iran to make peace quickly after the US smashed its most fortified nuclear facility to smithereens Credit: White House 10 Six GBU-57 mega-bombs changed the landscape of the site where scientists were feared to be close to perfecting a nuclear weapon 10 Trump warned of even bigger attacks to come if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's rogue regime dared to retaliate Credit: Getty Before and after pictures showed six But last night the world held its breath as There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Donald Trump In a surprise attack, it launched Operation Midnight Hammer, involving 125 US military aircraft including seven B-2s. Advertisement READ MORE ON IRAN CONFLICT Some headed into the Pacific as a decoy while the B-2s went directly to Iran, according to US air force chief General Dan Caine. Just before they entered Iranian airspace, more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a US submarine at the Isfahan site. Other deception tactics were used before 14 bunker buster bombs were dropped on two target areas, with Fordow said to be wiped out. In a televised address, Mr Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Breaking 'If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. 'There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Trump's shock Iran strikes take us to bring of global conflict and will strengthen Axis of Evil alliance, experts warn 'Remember there are many targets left. 'Tonight's was the most difficult of them all, by far, and perhaps the most lethal. 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He said: 'A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their nuclear weapons.' Advertisement 10 Iran has supplied Moscow with thousands of military drones to strike US and Ukraine in return for help from Putin's atomic boffins. Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer's Government continued to sit on the fence last night and repeated calls for both sides to de-escalate. Trump had an option to launch the historic B-2 mission from the joint US-UK base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — 3,000 miles from Iran. Advertisement The people of the region cannot endure another cycle of destruction. Security-General Antonio Guterres But they flew more than 6,000 miles direct from the US as the President would've been obliged to ask Russian and Iranian ally China called the US attack a 'serious violation of international law' yesterday as global battle lines were drawn. Sources said the 86-year-old was in a reinforced bolthole in Tehran's Lavizan suburb. Advertisement 10 Trump vowed to continue military strikes unless Iran axes both its nuclear and ballistic missile building plans Credit: The Mega Agency 10 B-2 stealth bomber arrives back at base in the United States Credit: AP The UN Security Council met yesterday — following a request by Iran — and said the US attack 'marks a perilous turn'. Security-General Antonio Guterres added: 'I have repeatedly condemned any military escalation in the Middle East. Advertisement 'The people of the region cannot endure another cycle of destruction.' He added that 'diplomacy must prevail'. Yesterday morning, Iran launched waves of revenge hits on Israel. Explosions and damage was reported in northern and central Israel, including in Haifa, Ness Ziona, Rishon LeZion, with 86 people treated for injuries and trauma. Advertisement Israeli officials said 240 residential buildings were damaged and 9,000 citizens are homeless following Iranian attacks over the past ten days. 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Irish Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Group of 15 Irish citizens evacuated from Israel
A group of 15 Irish citizens were successfully assisted in departing Israel on Sunday. They are expected to arrive in Ireland in the coming days after an EU partner organised their departure. The Department of Foreign Affairs asks Irish citizens in Iran and Israel to remain vigilant, to monitor developments and media, and to follow advice from the authorities, including when this is to shelter in place. Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris said: "Our Embassies will remain in close contact with all citizens in Israel and Iran over the days and weeks ahead. Our wider political work on the developing situation also continues." The Tánaiste said he spoke to Iran's deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi on Sunday. He continued: "During the call, I expressed grave concern at the developments overnight, strongly urged restraint and shared the view that it was not in the interests of the Iranian people or the Middle East as a region for hostilities to escalate. "I stressed the importance of Iran engaging in formal processes to de-escalate and said there is eagerness on the part of the EU and the E3 countries to be helpful in relation to these processes and to remain engaged in dialogue at this key time. "Ireland's perspective on this matter comes from our long track record of support for nuclear disarmament, our recent role on the UN Security Council dealing with the Iran file and the strong belief that concerns about Iran's nuclear programme should be addressed through dialogue." The Tánaiste is due to meet his EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday to discuss the evolving situation. He added: "Our work to encourage dialogue, diplomacy and deescalation will continue."
