CNN’s Clarissa Ward: Iranians View Their Nuclear Program as Essential for Their Self-Defense

EXCERPT:

WARD: “Now that the hostilities have stopped, the regime has a chance to reconstitute, regroup. They're worried that there’s going to be a witch hunt against people who will be accused of having collaborated with the Israelis or having supported the Israelis. So, they are deeply fearful. They are underground. Their voices haven’t been heard. At the same time, there are a lot of Iranians who support the current regime, who feel outraged by what Israel has done, and who view their nuclear program as being absolutely existentially essential for their self-defense. And so it’s important to try to, like, sit with the complexity of many different viewpoints. And then you have the Iranians in diaspora, many of whom actually support Israel and what Israel has done. So it’s not a black-and-white picture, but a lot of people reaching out to me really afraid right now."