Some Iranians who hoped the war would bring positive change told CBS News now that they feel “lost.”

Before the US and Israel launched their joint attack on Iran 25 days ago, many Iranians said they would accept foreign intervention if it meant the end of the Islamic Republic. The regime, which has been in power for 47 years, had just ended a major wave of protests against the government, and President Trump. they say more than 30,000 were killed and promised to help the protesters.

Now, two Iranians — one inside and one outside the country — tell CBS News that the sense of hope has changed dramatically behind more than three weeks of war.

“If we had a world situation where Europe and the rest of the world were more organized and cooperative, cooperative, with a multilateral system, power and communications and sanctions and negotiations, all kinds of things – a long-term plan – then that would work with this regime,” said Reza, a British-Iranian whose name CBS News has changed to protect his identity. “But having just one or two countries, you know, going in without a proper plan? It’s never going to work. So that’s why I think people are waking up to that irrational awakening, realizing, that they’re lost, basically.”

Reza, who is based in the UK, said he has spoken to many other Iranians in the diaspora who feel the same way.

Iran “plays a big role for Trump, in that he realizes that he doesn’t have a strategy. So they use that to their advantage to get more power and more planning ahead The Strait of Hormuzand they shrink the world, because they know that’s where the weakness of the whole world is, basically,” said Reza.

Inside Iran, Amir – whose name has been changed to protect his identity – echoed this view.

“Many people who were pro-war, and who thought that the war could be freedom, freed them from the monarchy of Iran and despotic theocratic regimes, now they think twice and reconsider, and reach any moment to stop shooting, regardless of who is the boss. Regardless of who is the king,” said Amir. “Anything that says ‘okay, enough is enough’ and there’s a ceasefire until further notice.”

Amir said he expected “weeks of hell to come,” when the Iranian regime and the Trump administration backtracked, in his view, “in style.”

Meanwhile, the opposition groups in Iran have “no [a] an active and effective alliance to lift even a finger,” said Amir, casting doubt on the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Iranians would use the opportunity of the ongoing strikes to rise up and overthrow the regime from within.

From Amir’s point of view, it seems that Mr. Trump “can’t find a way out of the mess.”