NEW YORK – Hundreds of Iranian Americans and supporters of the Iranian opposition gathered near the United Nations headquarters in New York during the UN General Assembly to protest against the Tehran regime and to demand international backing for democratic change in Iran. The two-day rally was held at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, coinciding with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s address to the UN.
According to organizers, the primary objective of the protest was to draw the international community’s attention to human rights issues in Iran, including political executions, the mistreatment of political prisoners, and the necessity of a political transition process led by the Iranian people themselves. Demonstrators also called upon democratic governments to stand behind the aspirations of Iranians for freedom and democracy.
Prominent American political figures, representatives of the Iranian opposition, and Iranian community activists took part in the event. Among the keynote speakers was former U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli, who denounced the Iranian regime and rejected every form of dictatorship, whether religious or monarchical. “No to the mullahs, no to the shah. We want no dictatorship of the left or the right, of religion or of politics,” the former U.S. senator declared during his speech. He further emphasized that the future of Iran must be determined solely by the Iranian people.
Another featured speaker was former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg, who argued that international solidarity with the Iranian people must be paired with concrete political actions. “We cannot wait for another war, another crisis, or another president. We cannot wait,” he stated. Ginsberg addressed the ongoing cases of imprisonment, torture, and loss of life during protests across Iran, urging a more decisive response from the international community.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani expressed his support for the Iranian opposition and the framework of a democratic transition. In his address, he emphasized that political change in Iran must lead to a representative democracy rather than a return to past authoritarian models of governance. He argued that international political support holds far greater significance than any external military intervention.
Representing the Iranian opposition, Sona Samsami, the U.S. Representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), spoke on the plight of political prisoners and the operations of opposition networks inside Iran. She called for the establishment of international accountability mechanisms to investigate the documented human rights abuses and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Iran.
A unified theme among all speakers was the unequivocal rejection of dictatorship in all its forms and the endorsement of the Iranian people’s right to determine their nation’s political destiny. Participants underscored their call for international political backing for democratic transition while explicitly opposing foreign military intervention. They further demanded that the international community refuse to overlook human rights atrocities in Iran and actively support the Iranian people’s quest for freedom, justice, and democratic elections.
