Iran and Israel conflict: Iranian living in Belfast says 90% of people in Iran want to live in peace with Israel

He was speaking after Israel was reported to have carried out limited strikes in Iran on Thursday night. The action was in response to Iran launching the largest ever aerial attack on Israel last Saturday night - some 350 missiles, 99% of which were repelled.

The exchanges are seen as part of an unprecedented escalating conflict which is threatening to engulf the entire Middle East..

Hamid was jailed in Iran for taking part in street protests against the current regime in 2017-18 but fled after being released on bail. He has now been granted political asylum in Belfast and campaigns for change at home using social media and internet radio and television channels.

He told the News Letter that he is very concerned about his friends and family left behind in Iran.

"Of course, because the situation that has happened is not only threatening my family, but almost all of the people who live in the region,” he said.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, and the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) took this action against Israel. But the majority of the people in Iran do not agree with this, 90% want to live in peace with Israel.”

Independently, the BBC is reporting substantial street protests across Iran against the Iranian attack on Israel.

Hamid strongly defends the right of Israel to exist.

"My opinion is very much that Israel must be allowed to exist as a free country, however the Islamic Republic of Iran wants to vanish it from the map.”

He is very strongly against war in general, he says.

"But after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, Israel has every right to defend themselves. It had no other choice."

He says the vast majority of Iranians in Northern Ireland – some 500 – would not oppose Israel.

A small minority may disagree, and among them there is always the risk that some are Iranian spies, he says.

Earlier this month Iranian journalist Pouria Zeraati was almost stabbed to death in London in an attack the journalist believes was sponsored by Iran.

Hamid says the Iranian regime is "a totalitarian state with no freedom of speech".

In some rural areas girls as young as nine are still pressed into marriage, he says, and women in abusive marriages have no right to divorce their husbands.

He cites the high profile case last year of a man who has remained unpunished after publicly beheading his 18-year-old wife, a video of which he said went viral.

Protests for women's rights in 100 cities in 2023 resulted in some 900 people being killed by the authorities with 10,000 arrested, he says.

And in 2019 when the people were protesting in the streets against the Islamic Republic, the regime responded by killing 1500 innocent people.

"However nobody really cares about any of this. So I really want to know why the media around the world are not writing very strong reports against the Islamic Republic of Iran?"

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