By Tim Reid
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -In the cafes and restaurants of Little Persia, a Los Angeles enclave of about half a million Iranian-Americans, hatred for Iran’s Islamic government is red hot and widely felt.
What’s less agreed upon is whether American and Israeli forces should have launched strikes on nuclear and military facilities in Iran, including the dropping of 30,000-pound U.S. bunker-busting bombs ordered by President Donald Trump on Saturday.
Within this huge Iranian diaspora in western Los Angeles, the largest Persian community outside Iran, Iranian Jews interviewed by Reuters said they are all in on Israeli and U.S. bombing raids, and want to see more.
Iranian Muslims in the area – also called Little Tehran or Tehrangeles – were more ambivalent, with many suspicious of Israel and wary of America getting embroiled in another Middle Eastern conflict.
Most of the two dozen people who spoke to Reuters did not want their full names published or their pictures taken, such is their fear of the Islamic Republic led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. All still have relatives there.
Reza, a 38-year-old college professor who left Iran 15 years ago, says he received a call from an Iranian official last year from his sister’s mobile phone. He was told that if he did not stop publishing anti-Islamic Republic posts on his social media accounts, his sister could be in danger.
“It’s a very sensitive topic. I am definitely happy Israel and the U.S. are destroying their nuclear program. I don’t trust the Iranian regime having access to nuclear technology,” said Reza, an Iranian Muslim.
“But I’m also sad for my family there. The people are suffering. It’s a very scary time. And I do not like the U.S. getting involved in another war.”
Three blocks away, outside a Starbucks coffee shop, seven men, mostly Iranian Jews, were discussing the war between Israel and Iran, now in its second week, and the bombing of three nuclear sites by the U.S. on Saturday.
The world braced on Sunday for Iran’s response after the U.S. joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
Outside the Starbucks, the mood was celebratory.
“This regime should not exist anymore, they torture their own people, they put their own people in prison. These mullahs are causing problems all across the Middle East and the world,” said Shawn, 72, a mortgage broker.
Iran has so far not followed through on its threats of retaliation against the United States and has said it will consider all possible responses. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful and its U.N. Ambassador has accused Israel and the U.S. of destroying diplomacy.
Sol, 58, who left Iran in 1983 and has relatives in Iran and Israel, said the group outside Starbucks had been celebrating since Israel began striking Iran earlier this month.
“Israel is doing a very good job. God Bless them,” he said. “We want those mullahs out!”
Roozbeh, 48, a mechanical engineer who left Iran in 2007, said he was worried about his parents and two brothers still in Iran and had just spoken to them.
“They are in the north. Israel bombed it for the first time yesterday,” he said. “I hope the Israeli military action will bring down the regime, of course.”
Younger Iranian-Americans also expressed their hatred for the Islamic Republic – but were far more skeptical about Israeli and U.S. strikes on the country.
Raha, 33, was born in the U.S. Her parents fled Iran during the 1979 revolution, which led to the overthrow of the U.S.-backed government and the creation of the Islamic Republic.
Raha has visited relatives in Iran about 10 times. On one visit she says she had an encounter with the “morality police,” because her hijab headdress had slipped.
She recalled the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian who died in a hospital in Tehran, the Iranian capital, after being arrested for not wearing her hijab in accordance with the Islamic government’s standards.
Raha said she and her friends celebrated when an Israeli strike killed the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps this month. “That’s a good thing. We want them all down,” Raha said. “I absolutely want to see the regime in Iran fall.”
(Reporting by Tim Reid; editing by Paul Thomasch and Deepa Babington)
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