(JNS) Nearly 500 Iranian Americans and other opponents of the Islamic regime rallied outside the White House on Jan. 3 to express solidarity with their countrymen in Iran who have been protesting for freedom from the Islamic Republic during the last week.

The group gathered there “to send a message to the world and those protesting for freedom in Iran that they are not alone in their struggle and we are standing fully behind them,” Tony Hosseini, who leads a group called DC Protests for Iran, told JNS.

Hosseini was one of several Iranian American activists of various faiths who told JNS that they have vocally supported the protests that broke out in Tehran on Dec. 28, sparked by merchants angry about the poor economic situation in the country.

The civil unrest is also based on widespread discontent with the regime’s near 50-year rule, according to activists who oppose the Islamic Republic.

“People in Iran are hurting financially, but they have lost total confidence in the Islamic Republic, and they are getting killed in the streets not because they can’t afford groceries but because they are publicly expressing their opposition to this regime,” Bijan Kian, an Iranian American activist and president of the Southern California-based Institute for Voices of Liberty, told JNS.

US President Donald Trump warned on Jan. 2 that if Iran shoots and “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue” and is “locked and loaded and ready to go.” Trump added on Sunday that Iran will be “hit very hard” if it kills protesters.

Iranian Americans and other opponents of the Islamic regime rally outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 3. Credit: DC Protests for Iran.

Kian and other Iranian American activists, who are in contact with their countrymen in Iran, told JNS that protestors in Iran are pleased with Trump’s message of support but have been asking for help restoring their internet and preventing the regime’s security forces from shooting protestors.

“At the top of their list, first and foremost, they are asking for internet and connectivity connections,” Kian said. “They are very grateful to President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu for their messages of support, but they are hoping the president will deliver on his promise when he said he was ‘locked and loaded,’ because the protestors are now being shot at and being killed by the regime’s forces.”

“Their message to President Trump is: We will do the regime change. We are not armed. They are shooting us. You are locked and loaded, please press the trigger,” Kian told JNS.

Bijan Khalili, publisher of IranShahr, a Persian-language news outlet based in Los Angeles, told JNS that the message of support was unprecedented from a US president and is emboldening protestors in Iran to fight back against the regime’s repression.

“Obama was silent during the 2009 protests, and Biden was silent during the 2022 protests,” Khalili told JNS. “Without a doubt, President Trump’s support to our people protesting today gives them tremendous confidence, because they know they are now not alone.”

Trump’s message on social media supporting the protestors may substantially erode support of the Iranian supreme leader from the regime’s security apparatus, according to Khalili.

“Trump’s statement is great, because it gives Khamenei only two options, both of which are bad for him,” he said. “Either he can heed Trump’s warning and be forced to flee to Russia, or he can order his forces to continue shooting and attacking the protesters, which will lead to Trump sending American forces to attack Khamenei and his military.”

The Iranian regime has yet to publish or release official information about the number of protesters killed or arrested, but Iranian opposition news sites have reported that since recent protests began in Iran, at least 15 protesters and one of the regime’s security forces have been killed.

More than 40 people are believed to have been shot and wounded by live ammunition or pellet guns fired by the regime’s armed guards across Iran over the past week, Khalili told JNS.

Iranian opposition news outlets also estimate that protests have spread across roughly 60 cities and 25 provinces in Iran over the last week.

Kian told JNS that the US military’s attack on Venezuela and arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro was also a major blow to the regime in Iran, which had a strong alliance with both Maduro and Venezuela’s previous dictator, Hugo Chávez.

“This is big. This is the end of an era, because both Maduro and Chávez were closely allied with the Islamic Republic and their former president Ahmadinejad over the years,” he said. “The lion’s share of Quds force budget comes in from the narco-terrorism in America’s backyard.”

“Who knows how many Venezuelan passports are issued to Islamic Republic operatives or Hezbollah and Hamas and other proxy terror groups,” Kian added.

Sharona Nazarian, the mayor of Beverly Hills, Calif., told JNS that she and other Iranian Americans in Southern California stand in solidarity with protesters in Iran.

“Beverly Hills is home to one of the largest Iranian communities outside of Iran. We see you, we hear you and we stand with you,” Nazarian, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, told JNS.

Iranian Americans and other opponents of the Islamic regime rally outside the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 3. Credit: DC Protests for Iran.

“We stand with the will of the Iranian people and support their right to peaceful expression and a better future,” she said. “I pray for a free, safe and peaceful Iran, and for lasting peace and stability throughout the region.”

Fred Saberi, an Iranian political analyst and opposition activist based in Sweden, told JNS that the protests in Iran today differ from those in the past due to Israeli and US attacks on the Iranian regime’s nuclear sites, which shattered the Islamic Republic’s image of strength.

“Protesters are far more courageous today than in the past, because they now understand that the Islamic Republic is far weaker than it claims to be,” he told JNS. “Fear of the security forces has visibly diminished, and in many cases, security units rely on loudspeakers to disperse crowds rather than carrying out the violent crackdowns seen in previous years.”

Other Iranian American activists told JNS that another change is that the current protests, as captured in video footage that is circulating, show protesters chanting slogans that support the Iranian opposition leader and crown prince Reza Pahlavi.

“The people of Iran have truly awoken. In 60 different cities in Iran have been clearly chanting the name of the crown prince Reza Pahlavi as their chosen leader with slogans of ‘Long live the king,’ ‘This is the last battle, Pahlavi will return’ and praising his grandfather by chanting ‘Reza shah, bless you soul,’” Hosseini told JNS.

“From what we are seeing, they are not calling the name of any other person that they want to lead them right now,” he said.

Banafsheh Zand, an Iranian American journalist and activist in Maryland, told JNS that recent protests in Iran, unlike earlier ones, appear in video footage to include Iranians defending themselves against the regime’s armed forces.

“Protesters are now fighting back with whatever means they have left, using the only language the IRGC and its Basij auxiliaries understand,” she said. (Basij is a militia wing of the Iranian regime.)

According to Zand, many of those attacking the protesters aren’t even Iranian but have been imported from militias from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Lebanon.

George Haroonian, an Iranian Jewish activist in Los Angeles and head of the nonprofit No To Antisemitism, told JNS that he has spoken to Jews in Iran recently, and the community of between 5,000 and 8,000 has been safe during the protests. The regime is monitoring the Jewish community closely, he told JNS.

“There is no indication that there is any danger or enmity towards the remaining Jewish community of Iran by the anti-Islamic regime protesters,” he said. “The community has been warned not to communicate with the outside world on WhatsApp or give comments on ‘Zionist’ sites, such as Instagram and Telegram, which are popular in Iran.”

The Iranian regime used members of the Jewish community and a prominent rabbi in Iran last week as propaganda tools to speak at the sixth anniversary of the US assassination of Iranian terror leader Qasem Soleimani, according to Haroonian.

Matthew Nouriel, an Iranian Jewish activist in Los Angeles and community engagement director for the nonprofit Jewish Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, told JNS that Jews worldwide should support the Iranian people toppling the regime, which has been a source of state-sponsored terror worldwide for nearly 50 years.

“The mullahs’ regime occupying Iran is the root cause of much of the conflict we see, from Hezbollah to Hamas to the Houthis and beyond,” he told JNS. “Once the head of that snake is cut off, much of that network would collapse. Until that happens, we’re just playing Whac-A-Mole.”

Other Iranian Jewish activists said that they were disappointed that traditional left-leaning human rights groups in America have failed to voice support for Iranians protesting during the last week.

“It’s baffling not to see every human rights organization, progressive and democratic activists jumping into action to support the brave men and women of Iran who are yearning to be free,” Sam Yebri, an Iranian Jewish leader in Los Angeles, told JNS.

“Their fight is the greatest liberation movement of our generation,” he said.

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