As Trump's Deadline Nears, Iranians Dread the Darkness

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/22/world/middleeast/iran-trump-power-plants.html

https://archive.ph/bARvs

As Trump’s Deadline Nears, Iranians Dread the Darkness
With President Trump threatening to strike Iranian power plants, some war-weary civilians are panicking over a possible new debacle.
By Farnaz Fassihi
March 22, 2026

President Trump’s threat to strike power plants in Iran, which could plunge much of the country of 90 million people into darkness, has set off widespread fear and anxiety among Iranians at home and abroad.

Threatened counterstrikes by Iranian officials on power and desalination plants in the region did not help ease jittery nerves. Many Iranians — on social media, in text messages and phone interviews — expressed growing dread about the war rapidly escalating.

Some also said they were confused about the messaging from the U.S. president.

At the onset of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran last month, Mr. Trump told the Iranian people that “help” was on the way and encouraged them to rise up against the government. Now, some say, he seems to be threatening to set them back to the Stone Age.

"Cutting off electricity means cutting off the lifeline,” Golshan Fathi, an activist in Tehran, said in a social media post. “Gasoline, banks, water, health care, mobile phones, disruption to vital devices like ventilators and dialysis machines, home patients (with oxygen generators, medical devices), cold storage and everything.”

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