Thousands of Iranian Americans and supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) flooded New York City this week to denounce regime president Masoud Pezeshkian’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, declaring “conditions are more favorable now for the collapse of the regime than they have been in decades” and demanding international recognition of the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the theocracy.
The two-day demonstration at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, directly across from UN headquarters, was organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) and sponsored by the NCRI, drawing participants from 46 U.S. states in what organizers called the largest Iranian diaspora gathering to coincide with the opening of the UN General Assembly — held this year on the institution’s 80th anniversary.
Demonstrators erupted in chants of “Pezeshkian out of UN, NOW, NOW, NOW” and “They are terrorists, they must go” as Pezeshkian delivered his address to the General Assembly Wednesday morning. Banners demanded the regime be held accountable for escalating executions, regional terrorism, and nuclear deception.
The NCRI, long credited with exposing Tehran’s secret nuclear program, framed the New York rally as a signal that Iranians both inside and outside the country reject dictatorship in all forms.
Rajavi: ‘Overthrow and Democratic Change’
NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi, in a video message broadcast to the crowd, declared, “With your powerful presence in front of the United Nations, the world sees that you represent the people of Iran. You are the true voice of the Iranian people before the United Nations, not the president of the Supreme Leader.”
Her message was uncompromising. “The seat of the Iranian people at the United Nations must not be given to a regime of executions and massacres. The message is very simple and clear: Overthrow and democratic change — a democratic republic with freedom and democratic rights,” she said.
Rajavi revealed that 1,817 people have been executed under Pezeshkian’s presidency in just 14 months. She warned the international community must abandon its failed “engagement” policy with Tehran. “We want neither a mullah nor a Shah,” she stated to the large crowd. “The era of all forms of dictatorship, whether religious or monarchical, is over. Our message for Iran’s future is simple: the sovereignty of the people — the people’s republic.”
On the UN’s 80th anniversary, protesters warned that the institution risks betraying its founding principles if it allows “a regime of executions and massacres” to claim Iran’s seat.
U.S. Leaders and Dignitaries Back the Resistance
A roster of high-profile U.S. and international dignitaries took the stage, driving home the rally’s message.
Former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey told demonstrators, “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that conditions are more favorable now for the collapse of the regime than they have been in decades.” He blasted Pezeshkian as “simply a mouthpiece for the mullahs,” comparing him to other physician-dictators like Bashar al-Assad. He urged the international community to compile evidence of regime crimes, he stated, “so that the evidence is at hand” for future prosecutions.
General Tod Wolters, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, praised NCRI’s preparation. “This regime exports terrorism and crushes civil life,” he declared. “The National Council of Resistance of Iran can and will deliver on this mandate. To the 90-plus million citizens of Iran: You deserve this change, and you deserve it soonest.”
Carla Sands, former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, highlighted the urgency. “The Iranian people have been silenced inside their own country. But here, right here, their voices are heard loudly, clearly, and with urgency,” she told the crowd. She noted nearly 1,800 executions under Pezeshkian and emphasized: “It was the MEK that first exposed Tehran’s secret nuclear weapons program. They demonize this movement because they know it is their existential threat.”
Former Kansas Governor and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback described the resistance as historic. “This is a terrorist regime, a nuclear weapon-seeking regime, a regime of slavery,” he declared. “And this could be one of the first, if not the first, women-led revolutions in world history.” He underlined why the mullahs fear their own people more than Israel, he stated: “Because they know the people don’t support them.”
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers echoed the call for regime change, standing with the Iranian resistance. Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan for a secular, democratic, non-nuclear Iran has already drawn majority support in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with endorsements from thousands of lawmakers, former heads of state, and Nobel laureates worldwide — underscoring the NCRI’s credibility as a democratic alternative.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) wrote on X that “thousands of Iranian-American supporters of the NCRI stood united at the UN for a secular, democratic republic of Iran — and against both monarchy and theocracy.”
He declared that the demonstrators were “strongly denouncing regime president Masoud Pezeshkian and backing Maryam Rajavi’s vision for a free Iran.” The message, he stated, was unmistakable: “The people of Iran reject dictatorship in all forms.”
Former Congressman Judge Ted Poe invoked America’s founding principles. “Whenever any government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish that government. That sounds like something y’all would say,” he told demonstrators. He added: “So many young women have given their lives just for what you’re standing here for today. Woe be to the mullahs — they do not know what they’re dealing with.”
Adding a human face to the resistance, survivors and young activists told the crowd that Iranians will never accept dictatorship as their destiny.
Testimonies from Iranian Americans gave the rally a deeply personal edge. Survivors and relatives of victims of the 1988 massacre carried photos of loved ones, declaring “Down with the dictator, be it the Shah or the mullahs!” Young activists like Parsa Aria pledged: “Our generation refuses to accept dictatorship as Iran’s destiny. The Resistance Units are the heroes of my generation.”
Rajavi credited these Resistance Units with undermining the regime’s stability and emphasized the NCRI’s decades of nuclear revelations. “The Iranian Resistance exposed the regime’s secret nuclear sites 23 years ago and has carried out 133 revelations since — the greatest service to peace and security in the Middle East and the world,” she said.
The demonstration was framed by organizers as evidence that the Iranian people have an organized, democratic alternative ready to assume power. Former U.S. Ambassador Marc Ginsberg said, “Ashraf 3 is not just a place, it is an aspiration for freedom and justice.” He stated that “the regime fears Maryam Rajavi because she is an iron lady whose network inside Iran has chipped away piece by piece at the edifice of this regime.”
Eighty years after the UN’s founding, protesters warned the institution will be judged by whether it stands with a regime of terror or with the Iranian people demanding freedom: “No to the Shah, no to the mullahs, yes to a democratic republic.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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