Iranian state television broadcast live from Times Square as radical, anti-American activists rallied to celebrate the Islamic regime’s so-called “victory” over the U.S. and Israel in the recent 12-day conflict—waving Iranian flags, displaying portraits of slain IRGC terrorists and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and chanting support for Tehran—an event the regime’s propaganda media hailed as proof it is deterring Washington’s “imperial ambitions.”
Rachel Hamdoun, a correspondent for Iran’s regime-controlled English-language mouthpiece Press TV, reported from the center of the protest—held Saturday—describing the gathering as a celebration of “Operation True Promise,” Tehran’s label for the missile barrage launched at Israel, highlighting the event’s theme of “long live resistance” as many New Yorkers, she claimed, gathered in Times Square to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people and pay tribute to their so-called martyrs following what she described as Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic.
Organized by the radical Bronx Anti-War Coalition, demonstrators carried banners demanding “Iran’s right to self-defense” and marched through Midtown, covering it with images of Iran’s top terror commanders assassinated by the U.S. and Israel, while calling for the dismantling of Western military influence in the Middle East.
One masked participant, identified only as “Che,” told Press TV: “Iran’s forceful response has really shown they’re not going to take aggression any longer… That’s giving energy to Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance to keep on going because they know Iran will be there to support them.”
Another protester, a woman named Shivani from the hard-left Freedom Road Socialist Organization—an openly Marxist group operating in the U.S.—claimed, “Iran is a critical supporter of resistance against imperialism, against Zionism. So Iran’s victory is obviously a major blow to the Zionist entity and U.S. imperialism worldwide.”
Hamdoun wrapped up her report by celebrating the protest as a warning shot to America: “The people vowed to continue to fight against U.S. imperialism and the Zionist regime, reiterating that surrender by the people of West Asia never has and never will be an option.”
The pro-Iran rally served as a propaganda stunt for Tehran amid its escalating domestic crackdown following what President Donald Trump dubbed the “12-Day War,” during which the regime was battered both militarily and diplomatically; in the aftermath, Iran has launched mass arrests, public executions, and widespread repression—particularly in the restive Kurdish regions—as it scrambles to project strength at home and abroad
While the oppressive theocratic regime spins the Times Square rally as a symbol of global support, the event revealed something far more telling: American radicals publicly siding with a state sponsor of terror, as Iran’s state-run media shamelessly weaponized their ignorance in its ongoing propaganda war against the West.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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