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Thousands of anti-regime protesters gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on Tuesday to demand an end to Iran’s execution of political prisoners and to establish a free democracy in the country.
The demonstration, led by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), called for world leaders at the UN General Assembly to act and force the Islamic republic to end the latest surge in executions, with at least 100 political prisoners currently on death row.
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, slammed the presence of Iranian leaders, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, at the UN meeting as she and rallygoers called for an end to the current regime.
“As long as this regime remains in power, repression, executions, terrorism, and warmongering will continue,” Rajavi said in a video call-in. “The solution is regime change by the Iranian people and their organized Resistance.”
Iran has undergone an execution spree since its brutal crackdown on protesters in January, with at least 56 people hung on national security-related charges since March 19, according to the UN.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk warned last month that more than 100 people were facing death sentences under the regime.
Among those recently sentenced to death was Leila Abolhasani, 43, a mother of two who only filmed a retail store burning during the January protests.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a former Trump adviser, also condemned the arrival of Iran’s delegation in New York, claiming the country has never been right since the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic republic under Ayatollah Khomeini.
“The people of Iran are his greatest victims, denied political rights to choose their own government, denied the human rights of freedom of speech and association, and even the right to dress as they so choose, manipulated and exploited by a cynical regime controlled by a military autocracy that is corrupting and stealing the wealth of the people of Iran,” Kellogg said.
Iranian activist Zahra Amanpour echoed the need to forego the Islamic republic and the monarchy of the past, calling for democracy to take root in the country to ensure the freedom for all Iranians.
“The unfinished promise of generations of Iranian struggle is the right of the Iranian people themselves to determine what comes next,” she said.
“That is the Iran I believe in — an Iran where women and men are equal, beliefs are freely chosen, leaders are elected rather than inherited, and governments belong to the people rather than the people belonging to their governments,” Amanpour added.
The rally was led with chants of: “Change Change Change, regime change in Iran,” and “Pezeshkian, out of UN! Now, now, now!”
As they demanded an end to the mullahs and shahs, the NCRI called for popular sovereignty, free elections, separation of religion and state, gender equality, abolition of the death penalty, and a non-nuclear Iran.
The Trump administration has gone back-and-forth on whether regime change is a goal for the war in Iran, with the president suggesting Iranians should “rise up and fight” earlier this month as negotiations stalled.
President Trump has previously acknowledged that a revolution could prove difficult given the lack of arms for protesters and the lengths Iran’s armed security forces are willing to go to suppress any dissent.
English (US)