NEW YORK — Thousands of people took to the streets of New York City Tuesday and Wednesday to call for regime change in Iran as Hassan Rouhani traveled to the Big Apple to address the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The bipartisan protest, dubbed the “No to Rouhani” rally and put on by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, was attended by members of the Iranian-American community, supporters of the Iranian opposition group People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
Prominent voices and speeches at the event, which occurred across the street from the United Nations, included opposition leader Maryam Rajavi; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; retired four-star general and former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army, Jack Keane; and former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman.
“Your gathering in New York is a resounding ‘No!’ to the policy of appeasement, to the policy of buying chances for a moribund regime, and to the policy of inaction toward a regime that preserves its power through warmongering, terrorism, and suppression,” Rajavi said.
“If one can topple this regime without an organization and leadership, without overcoming thorny trials, and without paying the price and making sacrifices, we say: Please, go ahead, don’t delay,” she continued.
“The mullahs’ regime is weak and at an impasse. Its adventurism and evil acts in the region are expanded only because no other party has stood up to it,” Rajavi added. “At the same time, the people of Iran are the regime’s primary victims.”
Chants of “terrorist Rouhani out of U.N.” could be heard as regime change supporters gathered in the designated area. Protest signs read, “Iranians want regime change,” and, “Iran hangs kids. Stop Iran’s murder regime.”
“The regime is seeing something that many are perceiving here in the west,” Giuliani said to the crowd. “They are seeing signs that they may be coming to an end. … This is the sign of a regime that’s crumbling.”
“I am speaking in my individual capacity,” Giuliani added. “I am for regime change. Down with the tyrants in Iran. Down with the ayatollah and the mullahs and all the crooks.”
Giuliani also praised Rajavi for her efforts regarding regime change in Iran, calling her a “great woman.”
“The regime’s aggressions still continues — our policies won’t change the behavior,” Lieberman said in regards to the Iranian regime. “It’s regime change that can solve the Middle East bloodshed. The NCRI’s ten-point plan is a guarantee for a prosperous, democratic and nuclear-free Iran. The NCRI has the broadest support in the U.S. and around the world.”
Keane took the stage where he also echoed Giuliani and Rajavi’s remarks in advocating for regime change in Iran.
“For almost forty years now, Iran has destabilized the Middle East with their maligned and aggressive behavior and after looking at it for almost four decades the only way that this is going to change, the mullahs are not going to change,” Keane told Breitbart News. “The regime has to change and likely that change will have to come from within.”
“What this administration is doing is finally beginning to break the foundation of the regime in terms of currency devaluation, inflation, civil unrest, drying up all their oil exports,” Keane added. “Iran is in a weaker place than they’ve been in nearly forty years, and they’re making desperate, stupid decisions as a result of it.”
Several Iranian youth were also in attendance for the rally as they gathered to protest against Rouhani’s presence at the United Nations General Assembly and “echo the people’s voice for regime change.”
In June, thousands of Iranian-Americans also gathered in the streets of Washington, DC, to march and voice their support for those seeking regime change in Iran, an issue that past presidential administrations have seemed to avoid.
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