Some Iranians fear the regime is now more entrenched - and ready for revenge

Some Iranians fear the regime is now more entrenched - and ready for revenge1 hour agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleFergal KeaneSpecial correspondentReutersMany Iranians are worried that the state will escalate its campaign of repression after the warThey are still there. There is no evading the simple fact. Everywhere the people walk. Wherever they drive. Whenever they switch on the television. The faces of assassinated leaders, and those of new rulers, dominate the public space.Protests have come and gone. A war. Then a ceasefire. But the regime of the Islamic Republic has endured.In fact, according to Iranians the BBC has spoken to inside the country, far from being weakened the regime is more deeply embedded. And it is in a vengeful mood.Sana and Diako - not their real names - are a young couple living in Tehran. They are middle class, educated, the kind of people who want to see the end of hardline religious rule.To tell their story it is necessary to exclude so many of the details that might give you an idea of their characters and lives. This is because such details can be used by the regime to track people who dare speak freely to the foreign media.Who is making decisions in Iran?In Tehran, money is short and a return to war looms over daily life'Endless fears': Even if fighting stops, the damage to Iran's children will endureThe journalist assisting the BBC in Iran met Sana and Diako near a park where families were walking with their children, making the most of this period of ceasefire.Diako wants to believe that life will get better. "Things will change," he says. "It's already changed."Sana laughs as he says this."Changed?" she asks. "It's fallen into the hands of the Revolutionary Guards. The country is a mess." Sana has felt her own emotions change since the US and Israel attacked Iran."At the beginning, I did not want the war to happen... [But] through the middle of the war, as...