After comments from the U.S. President Tuesday morning, at least some Iranians in Saskatchewan were watching and waiting to see what happens.
On social media, Donald Trump posted about his deadline for the Iranian government to open up the Strait of Hormuz to ship traffic, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” as he threatened attacks on infrastructure in Iran.
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Pooyan Arab lives in Saskatoon, but was born and raised in Iran and still has family there.
He said the post is concerning, but also said it’s hard to interpret exactly what Trump intends when he talks like that.
“The narrative and the rhetoric around the war is so up and down and all over the place that it’s very hard to know if it’s actually an ultimatum, (or) it’s actually a plan,” Arab explained.
He called it being in a big “sea of ambiguity and uncertainty.”
Arab said the problem is there are no good options in this situation and that there is potential damage to the country, but that this could also be the only chance for the Iranian people to get out from under the regime.
“What we know for certain is if the war ends and the regime stays there will be a bloodbath – that’s the most scary point for most Iranians right now,” he said.
He went on to explain that most people who aren’t familiar with daily life in Iran think it’s a choice between war and peace, but he said in this case it’s a choice between war, killing and oppression by the Iranian regime.
Soheil Vosta agreed, saying it’s upsetting because people could be killed in the fighting, but that if it weren’t for the war, Iranians would be getting killed anyway by the regime.
Vosta is in Regina now, but has family in Iran.
He said many Iranians are mostly on the same page with what the U.S. has done so far in Iran, but that it’s hard to know how serious Trump is.
With Trump’s words Tuesday morning, Vosta said it’s concerning, and if Iran was destroyed in the war he said the regime has been destroying it anyway with killings and fear and oppression over the last several decades.
Vosta said the Iranian people from all over would return and rebuild.









