LEILA FADEL, HOST:
People in Iran are afraid the war is intensifying now that the U.S. is involved. NPR's Arezou Rezvani has been exchanging messages with some of them, who asked not to use full names for fear of government retribution. She brings us their voices.
AREZOU REZVANI, BYLINE: It was early Sunday morning when 24-year-old Yeganeh (ph), a hairdresser who lives in the northeastern city of Mashhad, learned the U.S. bombed her country overnight.
YEGANEH: (Through interpreter) When I woke up, my sister first told me of the news, and I instantly felt a pit in my stomach, an intense terror. I couldn't find the words and was just speechless. It's a feeling I hope no one, not in the U.S. or anyone in the world, will ever experience.
REZVANI: For 40-year-old Puya (ph), the war upended what was meant to be a quick business trip to Iran and a visit with his mother, who's been very sick. He was supposed to leave the country over the weekend. But instead of getting out, U.S. bombers flew in, hitting three uranium enrichment sites and unleashing fears that the war Israel started 11 days ago is rapidly expanding and intensifying. He says he's not confident Iran's government can protect its people.
PUYA: People feel somehow forgotten because of the government not only appears incapable of defending the country or itself, but it has failed to manage the whole situation, just somehow to facilitate evacuation or issue any public alarms.
REZVANI: President Trump has warned Iran not to retaliate against the U.S. That hasn't stopped Iran from issuing its own warning. In a video published overnight, a spokesman for the military's revolutionary guard corps says the U.S. will face, quote, "regrettable and unpredictable consequences." His final words were in English.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: Gambler Trump.
REZVANI: Gambler Trump, he says, you can start this war, but we'll be the ones who end it. For Iranians like V, an engineer living in Tehran, the future feels grim.
V: I think we've reached the point of no return. And I don't believe that logical and sane people are in charge, neither in Iran, nor in Israel or in the U.S.
REZVANI: Iranians are now waiting to see if the rhetoric is real.
Arezou Rezvani, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SOULAR ORDER'S "LANGUAGE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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