A fragile ceasefire that many Iranians say does not feel like a ceasefire has given some people inside Iran the courage to speak out, despite what they describe as enormous personal risk.

The accounts come as President Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran «very hard» if Iran does not accept a U.S.-backed deal, after renewed military escalation threatened to derail already fragile negotiations. The latest round of U.S. strikes followed the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump blamed on the Iranian regime. Iran later reportedly retaliated with attacks in the region. 

Inside Iran, three young voices described a country where repression is becoming even more visible, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is expanding its presence on the streets, and ordinary people are struggling to afford basic necessities.

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All three spoke to Fox News Digital through written messages because of security concerns and internet restrictions inside Iran. Their names have been changed to protect their identities.

They described a similar reality: checkpoints across major streets, fear of the Basij, the hardline volunteer militia under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Revolutionary Guards itself, renewed enforcement of hijab rules, mass layoffs, long lines outside bakeries and a growing sense among young Iranians that the future has disappeared.

‘The curtain has been pulled back’ 

«The influence of the Revolutionary Guards always has been present, and everything has operated within their ideological framework. Now, their interference is more obvious and easier to see,» Hassan said. «Now the curtain has simply been pulled back.»

Milad described a city transformed by security forces.

«The atmosphere in cities and government offices has become much more securitized. Security forces are now visible around almost every major square and intersection, and there are numerous checkpoints throughout the cities,» he said. «Individuals affiliated with the security apparatus or the Basij are increasingly being given positions of authority and influence.»

At the beginning of the war, Milad said, authorities appeared to ease some social restrictions, including enforcement of hijab rules. But he said that pressure has since returned, adding that the regime is not only targeting opponents, but also silencing supporters who cross political red lines.

IRAN REGIME REPORTEDLY ISSUED NATIONWIDE SHOOT-TO-KILL ORDERS AS PROTEST DEATH TOLL SURGES

A woman walks past a billboard showing a military hand holding the Strait of Hormuz with Farsi text which reads, «In Iran’s hands forever,» «Trump couldn’t do a damn thing,» «The control of Strait of Hormuz will be Iran’s forever,» in Vanak Square, in northern Tehran, Iran, on April 16, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

«For example, a group staged a sit-in protest against negotiations with the United States,» Milad said. «Security forces intervened and told them that they were disrupting public security. They were warned that if they did not leave, they would be arrested.»

Ali, a student in Tehran, Iran, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps control feels more open than ever.

«It can be said that if previously 80% of the country was controlled by the Revolutionary Guard and the rest by the government, now 100% of the country is in the hands of the IRGC,» Ali told Fox News Digital. «When you drive through the streets and reach checkpoints, you don’t even dare look them in the eye because they can do whatever they want.»

«No one dares get into trouble with people who are members of organizations like the Basij, because they can report your name and have you arrested,» he added. «They have become more brutal than ever, and people know that if they take to the streets, the Revolutionary Guards can easily kill them and no one can do anything about it.»

Ali said Basij members who once hid their affiliation now display it openly. 

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Iranians react after a ceasefire announcement at the Enqelab square, Wednesday, in Tehran. The U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire Tuesday, barely an hour before President Donald Trump’s deadline to obliterate the rival country was set to expire, with Tehran to temporarily reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz. (AFP via Getty Images)

‘We couldn’t even breathe’ 

The accounts come against the backdrop of Iran’s long history of violent crackdowns on dissent. 

Iran International reported that more than 36,500 people were killed during the January crackdown, while Amnesty International described January 2026 as the deadliest period of repression by Iranian authorities in decades and said deaths rose into the thousands.

Milad, who said he witnessed the crackdown, described the impact it had on ordinary Iranians.

«Before the war, we couldn’t even breathe. We couldn’t sleep at night,» he said. «The conditions were very difficult for most people who had seen that massacre. After the war, we were able to sleep more easily at night, and we felt a bit more at ease. Now, even though the war is still ongoing, we continue to worry about the families of the martyrs and those who are in prison, under torture, and facing the executioner.»

The new war and the U.S.-led pressure campaign that began Feb. 28 have raised hopes among some opponents of the regime that the Islamic Republic could be weakened or even collapse. But the Iranians who spoke to Fox News Digital said that, for now, the result on the ground has been a more visible security state.

US ECONOMIC CHOKEHOLD ON IRAN REACHES PEAK LEVERAGE AS COLLAPSE RISKS EMERGE

Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 9, 2026. (Mahsa/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Bread lines and vanishing future 

The economic pressure also is being felt across daily life.  

Iran already was struggling with inflation, currency collapse, corruption and sanctions before the war. 

Since then, growing economic strain has been reported, with businesses crushed by high prices, supply-chain disruptions, internet blackouts and rising unemployment. Iran’s official statistics center reported annual inflation of 53.7% in April, with food inflation above 115%, according to the Associated Press.

Ali said, many young Iranians see almost no path forward.

«The economic situation has become so bad that almost all industries are on the verge of collapse and are simply trying to survive,» he said. «Many companies have laid off workers, including me. Many of my engineering-student friends have also been laid off. Families can no longer financially support their children.» 

«I see many more older men and women than before who clearly were not garbage collectors but are now searching through trash,» Ali said.

«Almost all of us young people are convinced that we have no future,» he added. «At best, if there is anything left from what we earn, we can spend it on going to a café. Buying a phone or clothes has become difficult; buying a car is a dream. Prices have become so high that some days we can barely afford our two main meals and nothing else. Snacks, fruit and similar things are no longer part of life.»

Milad described a similar picture, saying layoffs, unpaid salaries and rising utility bills are crushing families.

«The government is trying to collect more money from people through higher taxes. Utility bills for water, electricity and gas have become extremely expensive,» he said.

He said bakeries remain crowded not only because of war fears, but because bread has become one of the only affordable foods left.

«Bread has become the main staple on many family tables,» Milad said. «Medical costs are extremely high, and many people are afraid to visit a doctor because the costs of medication, tests and treatment are so expensive.»

Hassan, however, said the economic pain is bearable only because some Iranians believe it could eventually help bring down the Islamic Republic.

«We believe that with the return of a government that truly represents the people, under the leadership of Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, economic conditions will improve in the future,» he said.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s late shah, has lived in exile for decades and has increasingly presented himself as a unifying figure for Iranians seeking a post-Islamic Republic future. His supporters inside and outside Iran argue that any transition should lead to a referendum and a democratic system.

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Protesters rally in Washington, D.C., on March 7, 2026, supporting regime change in Iran following U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Warning against appeasement 

The Iranians who spoke to Fox News Digital warned the Trump administration against negotiating with the regime or easing pressure too soon.

«I would like to tell the Western world that appeasement of the Islamic Republic is futile,» Hassan said. «These are dishonest and deceptive people who, according to their religious beliefs, practice taqiyya in order to deceive others and maneuver their way through difficult situations.»

«These are not people who can be reformed,» he added. «Appeasement of them is harmful to the entire world. It is extremely naive to believe that meaningful negotiations can be conducted with such individuals.»

Ali said he believes the clerical regime would give up uranium if it allowed its leaders to stay in power.

«We only hope that the Islamic Republic falls, whether through war or through an agreement,» Ali said. «The clerics are far too shameless to fight to the death over uranium. They would be willing to hand over the uranium to the United States if it meant staying in power and continuing to plunder Iran. But they are certainly careful to avoid suffering the same fate as Gaddafi.»

His message to Washington was direct.

«The only message I have for the U.S. government is: save the people of Iran from the clerics and free Iran from the Islamic Republic,» Ali said.

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Iranian American community members Sadaf Ebrahimi, Shirin Nariman, and Mehran Ebrahimi watch a TV screen at Nariman’s home in Vienna, Virginia, reacting to news of U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, 2026. (Nathan Howard/Reuters)

Milad said many Iranians are watching Trump closely and fear another moment when the West chooses negotiation over the people in the streets.

«Iranian people have hope that the American administration will be strong and stand on their side,» he said. «We don’t want another Obama situation. Iranian people and their blood are not oil prices.»

«We have one message to the president, and that is to continue,» Milad said. «Here in Iran, we no longer say, ‘Obama, Obama, either with us or with them.’ Now we’re saying: ‘Trump, don’t be Obama. You are with us, not with them. President Trump, stay the course.’»

Fox News Digital reached out to Iran’s mission to the United Nations for comment. 

After months of predicting a nuclear deal with Iran was just around the corner, President Donald Trump appears to be testing whether military pressure can accomplish what diplomacy alone has not.

The strategy was on full display over the past 24 hours. Trump followed through on his threat to strike Iran again overnight, launching a barrage of Tomahawk missiles and fighter jet attacks against Iranian targets while warning that additional bombing would follow unless Iran agreed to a deal. Hours later, however, he announced he had canceled planned strikes for Thursday evening, saying negotiations had been elevated to the highest levels of Iran’s leadership and that the parties had approved the final contours of an agreement.

The rapid sequence of threats, strikes and renewed diplomacy highlights an increasingly familiar pattern in Trump’s approach to Iran: using military pressure to push negotiations forward while keeping a diplomatic off-ramp open. The question is whether the strategy is increasing Washington’s leverage — or reinforcing Iran’s belief that the United States ultimately wants a deal more than continued confrontation.

«He has made so many threats that he has not carried through on and telegraphed on many occasions his strong desire to end this war as soon as possible, that I think Iran does not take these threats seriously,» Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Military and Security Studies Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Fox News Digital.

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Trump said Iranian officials contacted him during the strikes and asked for the bombing to stop. 

«If they don’t sign the deal, we’ll bomb the sh*t out of them tomorrow night,» he said.

Trump suggested Thursday the campaign could eventually expand to Iran’s energy infrastructure, including Kharg Island, the country’s most important oil export hub.

«At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela.» 

But later, he sounded less certain. «My preference has always been to take Kharg Island. I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest,» Trump said on Fox and Friends. 

Yet even as he promised additional military action, Trump maintained that negotiations had been on the verge of success.

«We’ll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal,» he said earlier Wednesday.

The comments marked a sharp escalation from a president who only days earlier predicted an agreement could arrive within «two or three days» and has repeatedly suggested a breakthrough remains imminent despite months of unresolved disputes over uranium enrichment, sanctions relief and Iran’s nuclear stockpile.

«They keep tapping us along,» Trump told reporters Wednesday. «They keep playing us for suckers because you know what? They dealt with some very stupid presidents.»

Trump’s latest actions suggest the administration is still offering Tehran an off-ramp through a negotiated nuclear agreement. The question is whether military pressure strengthens Washington’s hand — or whether Iran has concluded it can withstand the costs and outlast the campaign.

Iran «has more resilience,» said James Robbins, dean of academics at the Institute of World Politics, noting that Iran has been forced to work around global isolation for decades. «They’re kind of used to sanctions. They’re used to economic dislocations, much more so than Americans.»

Plumes of smoke rise following reported explosions in Tehran, Iran, on March 2, 2026. (Sohrab/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued that mounting pressure does not necessarily make the regime more willing to compromise.

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«The more desperate the regime becomes, the more aggressive the regime becomes,» Taleblu told Fox News Digital.

He also questioned whether strikes on bridges, power plants and other infrastructure would fundamentally alter Iran’s decision-making, arguing that the regime is primarily concerned with threats to its own hold on power.

«Until those making the key national security decisions, those enforcing the key national security decisions, and those enforcing the regime’s longest war, which is on its own people, so long as those three are not targeted, we’ll be back where we started,» he said.

Eisenstadt argued that Iran may ultimately believe it can absorb sanctions, withstand military pressure and simply wait for political pressures inside the U.S. to grow.

«I think they believe that time is on their side, given domestic criticism of the war and its economic impacts in the United States,» he said.

Trump’s lates strike threats came days after an Iranian drone brought down a U.S. Apache helicopter operating near the Strait of Hormuz, triggering retaliatory U.S. strikes on Iranian radar and air-defense sites and threatening to unravel an already fragile ceasefire.

The administration’s goal has long been that sustained military and economic pressure would eventually force Iran to make concessions that months of negotiations alone have failed to produce. Trump and his advisors have repeatedly argued that sanctions, military operations and the U.S.-led blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has cut off the pathway for roughly 80% of Iran’s oil exports, have left Iran increasingly isolated and economically vulnerable.

Iranian officials publicly rejected the notion that expanding the target set would force Iran to bend.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called Trump’s threat to strike power plants and transportation infrastructure a «sign of desperation.»

A drone view shows vessels anchored at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, May 25, 2026. (Stringer TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY via Reuters)

«Critical infrastructures are the lifeblood of the people,» Pezeshkian said in a post on X.

Trump has repeatedly rejected the notion that Iran can wait out his administration.

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«They thought they were going to out-wait me, you know. ‘We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms,» Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on May 27.

Despite Trump’s repeated assertions that a deal is near, negotiators remain divided over several core issues, including uranium enrichment, sanctions relief and the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iranian officials have acknowledged progress on some elements of a potential agreement while warning that significant obstacles remain.

Whether the latest round of strikes changes Iran’s calculations may determine whether Trump’s strategy of military pressure succeeds in producing the agreement he insists remains within reach.

Pope Leo XIV landed in Spain’s Canary Islands, an epicenter for incoming migrants seeking entry into Europe, on Thursday just days after criticizing the country’s immigration policies in a speech to Spain’s Parliament.

Pope Leo will meet with 1,000 migrants on Friday to cap off his apostolic journey to Spain, the European country with the sixth largest Christian population on the continent.

Following his parliamentary speech Monday in which he took aim at Europe’s immigration polices, Pope Leo landed Thursday on the island chain’s Gran Canaria, according to Reuters.

On Thursday he met with migrants and leaders of international organizations that assist migrants, holding a moment of silence for migrants who died trying to reach Gran Canaria at Port of Arguineguin, a dock which made headlines in 2020 after over 1,000 migrants ended up stranded there during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Relief organizations came to call the Port of Arguineguin the «Dock of Shame» after the migrant crisis, a theme Pope Leo seemed to pick up on while speaking at the port Thursday.

«Dear migrants, before saying anything else to you, I want to bow before your dignity,» the pope said. «You are not just numbers or files. You are people who have left behind families and homes. You have dreams that no one has the right to despise,» Pope Leo said at the dock.

«We cannot grow accustomed to counting the dead,» he added.

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He also called for «legal and safe pathways» for immigration worldwide.

Pope Leo XIV on the day of a meeting with organizations working with migrants at the Port of Arguineguin, during his apostolic journey on the island of Gran Canaria, Spain June 11, 2026. (REUTERS/Borja Suarez)

Located less than 100 miles off the coast of West Africa, Gran Canaria has been the destination for thousands of Africans, many of whom have lost their lives attempting to traverse the volatile waters in small boats.

Over 3,000 people died trying to make the journey in 2025 alone, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Caminando Fronteras.

‘YOU’RE DESTROYING YOUR COUNTRIES’: IS EUROPE FINALLY HEEDING TRUMP’S WARNING ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION?

The Canaries have seen a massive uptick in migrant entries since 2015. In 2024 the archipelago broke records with 46,843 irregular migrants compared to under 1,000 in 2015, according to Reuters.

Speaking to media at Pope Leo’s event, a boat captain who assists charities and NGOs in ferrying migrants said he had personally helped save over 20,000 migrants in the last 18 years, Reuters reported.

«It’s a number that makes me sick and that you cannot forget,» the captain, Tito Villarmea, told Reuters. «I wish we ​didn’t have to save anyone,» he continued.

’60 MINUTES’ ACCUSED OF USING CATHOLIC CARDINALS TO PUSH LIBERAL AGENDA WHILE IGNORING ABORTION STANCE

Pope Leo XIV makes a floral offering to migrants lost at sea at the dock of the Port of Arguineguin in Gran Canaria, Spain, June 11, 2026. (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS)

Under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s socialist government has liberalized the country’s policies on migration, approving a plan in April to grant 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status.

Spain’s conservative lawmakers, meanwhile, fired back after Pope Leo’s Monday speech to Parliament.

During his address to lawmakers, Pope Leo called migration a «tragic drama» and said discrimination against people based on «national, ethnic, religious or linguistic origin, or because of their economic or social status» was a violation of the «universal principle of the equal dignity of all human beings.»

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But Santiago Abascal, who heads Spain’s conservative Vox party, countered making a point that Vatican City has policies against illegal immigration as well.

«I like the Vatican state’s migration policy. If someone enters illegally or with violence, they are fined, imprisoned and banned from entry. I would like a similar migration policy for Spain,» Abascal told reporters Monday.