Talking about changing the system is hesitant with the Iranians fleeing across the border

Maryam, the retired, said: “People want to change the system.”

The couple withdrew their heavy bags across a bridge over the rapidly flowing Aras River, which represents the northern remote border of Iran with the small nation of Armenia, in the southern Caucasus region.

“I walked a long way while I am tired. Mood in Iran is not good, but not bad either. Of course, people feel anxious, but life continues. Supermarkets, stores, all banks work.

She said that Israel and the United States wanted to “change the regime … but I do not know whether they will succeed, or whether the religious fanatics (in Tehran) will keep it. We will see.”

Porder Point offers a small window to Iran itself, at a time when the Internet is disrupted there, and most foreign journalists are banned.

But it should be noted that many people who spoke to us were dual citizens, with American, German passports and others. In this sense, they only offer a very partial snapshot of the general mood in Iran.

Supporting the people we generally met the idea of ​​changing the system – an idea that President Trump put forward after the United States said it had hit three Iranian nuclear sites during the weekend.

But Iran’s leaders still have their supporters in the country, and even among those who oppose opinions that differ about the American -Israeli bombing of their country.

At the crowded border crossing crossing, dusty hot wind storms spread around police cars, taxis and traffic trucks, where a continuous flow of people from Iran appeared on foot, from behind a long fence of barbed wire that the monitoring towers ignored.

In the legacy of the Soviet era, Russian forces are still patrolling parts of the border here. The same crossing is surrounded by the toothed mountains, and along the edge of the river, with a narrow strip of green agricultural lands.

A Canadian diplomat, pending support to his citizen, said that he calculated 80 people who arrive within one hour. This average appeared, in the narrative point of view, to increase on Monday, but it hardly was an exit.

The vehicles moved in both directions. Several departures refused to speak to us, citing concerns about the security of their families inside Iran.

ALENOOSH, 63, who said she was born in Iran to Armenian parents but she grew up in Paris, said she felt “time had reached the regime.”

“Everyone is afraid and everyone has enough of the system,” she said. “In front of my house, there was a lot of bombing. Many people are in a move. There is traffic. They don’t know where to go, where they are safe.”

A family of Canadian Iranians told us that they spent the day before in a resort on the Caspian Sea and drew a picture of a troubled country, but many areas appeared without hindrance due to the conflict.

An Iranian father, whose family now lives in Germany, spoke on the condition that we hide his identity. Next to him, she was a younger woman who planned to start a long taxi with him, through highly slope and narrow mountainous passes, first to the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, then to the nearby Georgia. I waited two cats next to her in a shade basket.

“I would like to change the Iranian regime. Everything is broken and damaged,” the man said, adding that its end was “near.”

He criticized others who, as he claimed, continuously complained about their government, but they were not ready to support outside military intervention.

“My family … you can die but it is a war and everything must be changed, we have to pay something.”

To sacrifice? I asked.

“Yes,” he answered firmly, stressing that he welcomed America’s decision to enter the conflict.

Perhaps President Trump’s decision to bomb Iran was the moment when some decided that it was time to leave – if they had the option to do so.

In the coming days, the new decisions – by the American President and other world leaders – will dictate the number of people who reach these borders looking for safety outside Iran.