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“There is a constant sense of fear in the air. Every time I hear a loud noise, I flinch. Even when a door slams, I jump, thinking that bombs are falling,” said a 37-year-old mother living in Tehran.
Unlike in the opening months of the war, her children are going to school.
“I don’t work, but keeping the children at home out of fear is not a solution,” she told DW. “They would go stir-crazy in our small apartment.”
Iran’s government takes aim at ‘rumors’
Schools remain open across Iran despite the military standoff with the US and Israel. However, some parents whose children attend private schools have received messages from those schools explaining what to do in the event of a renewed war or other emergency.
Numerous parents have shared such messages on social media.
The country’s Ministry of Education has tried to reassure the public.
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“People should not pay attention to rumors spread with the aim of sowing fear and forcing schools to close,” Ali Farhadi, a ministry spokesperson, said in a recent media interview.
He said the ministry will decide whether the schools stay open or close, and will do so in coordination with the security authorities. Should the security outlook change, the situation will be reassessed accordingly, the official said.
‘Pickaxe Mountain’ at the center of nuclear attack fears
Parallel to Farhadi’s appeal to disregard rumors aimed at raising fear, state media themselves are discussing scenarios of a possible nuclear attack.
On November 2, Iranian state television broadcast an advisory on protective measures in case of a nuclear strike. People were advised to remain in a shelter for at least 24 hours in the event of such an emergency.
Specifically, many in Iran fear the US is preparing to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s “Pickaxe Mountain” underground bunker located some 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Tehran. US President Donald Trump has hinted at attacking the location, which is close to Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, but made no explicit mention of using nuclear weapons.
Iranian government denies that any work related to its nuclear program is being carried out at the mountain bunker.
The fighting between the US and Iran has mostly petered out in recent months as the Trump administration focused on the midterm election. But two days after the election, on November 5, the US news outlet Axios reported that the US military was making final preparations for a possible resumption of large-scale strikes against Iran.
Trump still has months before new Congress takes power
At the same time, there are also hopes that a Democrat-controlled Congress would force Trump to scale down his military ambitions.
“It is still difficult to make any concrete assessment of the implications of the US midterm election results for the war with Iran,” writes Hamidreza Azizi, Senior Fellow and Iran expert at the International Crisis Group, in response to a request from DW.
Azizi says the Iranian leadership sees the election results as their own victory. The regime’s resistance to the Trump administration has contributed to the Republican Party’s loss in the US midterms, and some in Tehran are already seeking to frame the result as a sort of revenge for the US-Israeli assassination of senior Iranian leaders in the opening stages of the war.
Against this backdrop, Iran is likely to take an even harder line on its core demands.
At the same time, Azizi points out that Trump has at least two months before the new Congress officially takes office. He could decide to resume strikes on Iran in an attempt to offset a domestic political setback by targeting a foreign policy victory.
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Reporters kept in the dark on peace talks
For now, Qatari mediators are trying to persuade Tehran and Washington to agree on a draft peace deal. The aim is to prevent another round of escalation and pave the way for the resumption of direct talks in the coming days.
But even well-connected journalists in Iran have little information on the substance of the talks, which are closed to the public.
In a post on X on October 31, Iranian journalist Hadi Mohammadi wrote: “Domestic media outlets are completely in the dark about negotiations that directly affect people’s everyday lives. They have to wait for reports from Axios, Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera and other international media outlets. In such an environment, developing our own narratives and doing journalism becomes pointless.”
As the fog of war persists, many in Iran no longer have the energy to keep up with the media reporting. A 72-year-old retired woman from western Iran told DW she now deliberately avoids the news.
“I hardly have the strength to think about it anymore. I’m just glad that my three children have emigrated,” she said.
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This article was originally published in German.
