<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Thousands of supporters of Iranian opposition groups rallied just blocks from the White House on Saturday for the downfall of Tehran\u2019s theocratic government and to invite President Trump to \u201crip up\u201d the Iran nuclear deal.<\/p>\n
The rally came one week before Mr. Trump\u2019s May 12 deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Obama-era Iranian nuclear deal that saw the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China ease sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits to its nuclear program. Mr. Trump has criticized the 2015 accord since it took effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think is going to happen to that nuclear agreement?\u201d former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani yelled to a packed conference hall at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.<\/p>\n
A longtime ally of Iranian dissidents, Mr. Giuliani just joined Mr. Trump\u2019s personal legal team. Holding a piece of paper in his hands, he drove the rally wild by pretending to rip it apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not want President Trump to renegotiate, we want him to rip it up,\u201d said Shirin Nariman, a spokeswoman for the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) and an event organizer.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s rally saw organizers gather more than 1,000 Iranian delegates from across the U.S. for a rowdy flag ceremony, fiery speeches and music. In addition to criticizing the nuclear deal, dissidents blasted the Islamic Republic\u2019s human rights record, and argued for a free, democratic and secular Iran.<\/p>\n
Several speakers zeroed-in current unrest across Iran. Protests are still underway after a major uprising that erupted in 142 cities across in January, the largest since 2009.<\/p>\n
Some analysts believe the demonstrations began as an attempt by hard-line conservatives in the regime to undercut President Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate cleric who strongly backed the nuclear deal and just won a second four-year term.<\/p>\n
Mr. Rouhani has claimed that one of the exiled opposition groups involved in organizing Saturday\u2019s rally \u2014 the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) \u2014 was inciting the violence.<\/p>\n
The MEK has close ties to a Paris-based organization, the National Council of Resistance (NCRI) of Iran. The NCRI holds an annual rally in France that draws tens of thousands to call for the downfall of Iran\u2019s mullah-led government and has deep sources in Iran.<\/p>\n
The group is credited with exposing secretive Iranian nuclear facilities in the early 2000s. It also has had a contentious relationship with Washington, and was listed it as a terrorist organization by the State Department until 2012.<\/p>\n
Many prominent U.S. politicians from both sides of the aisle, including Mr. Giuliani, have long spoken out in support of the NCRI and the MEK, claiming the latter was wrongly put on the terror list.<\/p>\n
NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi addressed the rally via video link from Paris.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no time has the regime been so engulfed in crisis, and at no time has the time been so ripe to organize and expand the uprising,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Rajavi, who also called for the end of the Iranian death penalty, which has been liberally used as a scare tactic to subdue protests, also voiced opposition to the nuclear deal. She urged the international community to abandon the agreement and instead conduct unconditional inspections of Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles program.<\/p>\n
Former U.S. Energy Secretary and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a longtime MEK and NCRI supporter, fired up the convention hall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe regime is on the ropes as they say with boxers,\u201d he said. \u201cThe debate is no longer the hard liners against the reformers. It is now the entire people against the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Richardson also praised OIAC, MEK and NCRI as \u201cleadership that is willing to sacrifice and take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mr. Giuliani noted that Mr. Trump backed the Iranian protests earlier this year with the words \u201cwe support their fight for freedom,\u201d the crowd erupted.<\/p>\n
All speakers predicted regime change is coming soon, with Ms. Nariman noting that one of the organization\u2019s most prominent Washington supporters, John R. Bolton, is Mr. Trump\u2019s new national security adviser.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also supports regime change.<\/p>\n
Ms. Nariman expressed hope that this group, in addition to Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump, would soon bring about change.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thousands of supporters of Iranian opposition groups rallied just blocks from the White House on Saturday for the downfall of Tehran’s theocratic government and to invite President Trump to “rip up” t Thousands of supporters of Iranian opposition groups rallied just blocks from the White House on Saturday for the downfall of Tehran\u2019s theocratic government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[264,34,541],"class_list":["post-2994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worlds","tag-donald-trump","tag-politics","tag-rudolph-giuliani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}