No Temporary Shelters, No Air Raid Drills: As Iran Braces for War, its Citizens Are Kept in the Dark

Iranians walk in a road near a billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 05 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians walk in a road near a billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 05 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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No Temporary Shelters, No Air Raid Drills: As Iran Braces for War, its Citizens Are Kept in the Dark

Iranians walk in a road near a billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 05 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians walk in a road near a billboard depicting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (R) and late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 05 August 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

All government agencies and offices were closed Wednesday in Tehran, and in 13 provinces, including some along the western and eastern borders, hours for government offices were limited to 6 a.m. to 10 a.m, the New York Times reported.

Iran also issued a notice to civilian aviation, warning that “gunfire will take place” for several hours on Wednesday night and into Thursday over parts of the country, it said.

As Iran prepares to follow through on its vow to “severely punish” Israel over the assassination of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, it is raising war jitters among the public. Yet there were few, if any, signs on the streets of Tehran and other cities that a conflict may be looming.

The government said that the shutdown on Wednesday occurred merely because of extreme heat and that the closings of airspace were for military exercises.

But the explanations belie the statements from officials that, as the acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, told state media on Tuesday, “Iran’s response will be definitive and severe.”

While the time and scope of Iran’s response remain unclear — whether it will act alone or in coordination with regional militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — the disconnect between the escalating rhetoric and the nonchalance about preparing the public is striking.

“We are in the dark, clinging to news programs on satellite television to figure out what is happening because our officials are not telling us anything,” said Maliheh, 66, a retiree in Tehran. Like others interviewed by telephone for the New York Times article, she asked that her surname be withheld for fear of retribution by the authorities.

The government has not issued any directives about what citizens should do if Israel responds with counterstrikes: no temporary shelters; no air raid drills; no warnings to stock up on emergency supplies; and no contingency plans for hospitals in the event of a strike.

“The answer is nothing, zero,” said Ehsan, a 41-year-old business owner in Tehran, when asked if he had heard of any public safety instructions. “The people are an afterthought in our country.”

On social media and in interviews in several cities, Iranians said they were anxious and confused, the New York Times reported.

“The situation is beyond our tolerance,” said Parisa, 37, an artist in Tehran. “Many people who never wanted to leave the country are now thinking about immigration. Everyone is sad, aggressive and worried.”

But some others questioned whether the war chatter was justified, doubting that an Israeli counterstrike to whatever Iran decides to do would disrupt daily routines or critical services such as electricity and water.

Mostafa, 36, a computer engineer in Rasht in northwest Iran, criticized the government’s support for militant groups in the region, saying it placed Iran in Israel’s crosshairs. Still, Mostafa said, he did not believe an all-out war was coming. “It will be a remote war and in the form of destroying specific targets,” he said. “So I am not that worried.”

Others said they were already emotionally exhausted from months of tumultuous events, each enough on its own to unnerve a nation, including a terrorist attack claimed by ISIS that killed over 200 people; exchanges of missile strikes with neighboring countries; nearly going to the brink of war with the United States and Israel; and the death of the president and foreign minister in a helicopter crash.

In the past week, the already battered currency plunged anew against the dollar while the stock market tumbled.

“We are just sick and tired of waking up every day to news that someone died, something blew up, the price of the dollar went up, and recently we have to worry about going to war every few months,” said Behdad, 39, of Tehran, who said his import-export business was suffering as a result.



Trump Tariffs Torch Chances of Meeting with China's Xi

With his storm of tariffs, President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say. Brendan Smialowski / AFP/File
With his storm of tariffs, President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say. Brendan Smialowski / AFP/File
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Trump Tariffs Torch Chances of Meeting with China's Xi

With his storm of tariffs, President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say. Brendan Smialowski / AFP/File
With his storm of tariffs, President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say. Brendan Smialowski / AFP/File

With his storm of tariffs on Chinese goods, US President Donald Trump has torched ties with Beijing and likely wrecked any hope of meeting his counterpart Xi Jinping in the near term, analysts say.

Since taking office in January, Trump's maelstrom of import duties against friend and foe alike has rattled diplomats and pushed global markets to the brink of financial meltdown, said AFP.

A screeching halt on further levies for most countries has calmed nerves -- for now at least -- but there has been no reprieve for China, accused by the US leader of trying to "screw" Washington.

Adding to the tensions, talks between the two superpowers on international issues like climate change and opioid addiction seem to have stalled.

"Under Trump, China-US ties have sunk to the worst state of affairs short of a fairly large armed conflict," Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at Beijing's Renmin University of China, said.

"Trump has unsheathed his dagger against China at a speed that exceeded many people's imaginations," he said.

After a flurry of tit-for-tat hikes, the United States now charges tariffs of 145 percent on many products imported from China, with cumulative duties on some goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.

A furious Beijing has set a retaliatory toll of 125 percent on goods entering from the United States, and dismissed further rises as pointless.

US-China relations are in "effectively a state of economic war", Susan Thornton, who served as acting top US diplomat for East Asia during Trump's first administration, told AFP.

"China views Trump's stated intent to... erect a 'tariff wall against China' as illegal and an existential threat," Thornton, now a senior fellow at Yale's Paul Tsai China Center, said.

No backing down

Just a few weeks ago, multiple reports suggested Beijing and Washington were mulling a face-to-face meeting to coincide with the two leaders' birthdays in June.

But recent events have effectively left those plans dead in the water.

Trump's "rude and unreasonable" behavior has made any talks in the first half of the year "very unlikely", according to Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University.

Rosemary Foot, a professor and senior research fellow at Oxford University's politics and international relations department, said Beijing "would want to ensure that there would be some policy deliverables and Xi would be treated with respect".

Trump has approached the trade conflict with a typical mixture of flattery, denigration and bombast -- slamming China's "lack of respect" while hailing Xi as a "smart guy" and talking up a prospective trade deal.

Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser focusing on US-China ties at the International Crisis Group think tank, said neither Trump nor Xi "will want to convey that he has yielded to the other".

The "likeliest impetus" for talks, he said, would be a scenario where both could claim victory -- Trump by his willingness to keep ratcheting up economic pressure, and Xi by showing China's resilience.

Rana Mitter, a professor of US-Asia relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, said a Trump-Xi summit was "still quite possible", citing the mercurial US leader's dizzying pivot from threatening war against North Korea in 2017 to meeting Kim Jong Un the following year.

"Beijing will not agree to meet if it looks as if they are conceding to the US, so behind-the-scenes diplomacy will likely be necessary," Mitter said.

Back door shut

Other analysts said Trump's fiery rhetoric and crippling tariffs had likely laid waste to backdoor talks.

Under his predecessor Joe Biden, Washington and Beijing maintained dialogue on the fentanyl crisis, climate change and other issues.

Those channels "are moribund now, as far as I can tell, and that makes it difficult to prepare the ground for such a summit", Oxford's Foot said.

Wu, of Fudan, said Trump's out-of-hand dismissal of Chinese efforts to curb fentanyl precursor exports and his climate change denial meant the space for lower-track dialogue "has, in practice, already disappeared".

In official pronouncements, China has mocked Trump's tariffs as a "numbers game" and a "joke" with no economic benefits.

Beijing has also sought to cast itself as a defender of fair trade and stability in the face of unwarranted US "bullying".

Experts said China may yet scent opportunity in the face of Trump's economic carnage.

"Trump's colossally ill-conceived mass alienation of other countries may mean more receptivity for China's outreach," said Yale's Thornton -- adding that Beijing was likely conducting "economic triage".