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NEW YORK – Thousands of Iranian Americans gathered outside United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, calling for an end to dictatorship in Iran and expressing support for democratic change led by the Iranian people and their organized resistance.
Addressing the demonstrators at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), declared that Iran's deepening crisis could be resolved neither through foreign military intervention nor through accommodation with the ruling theocracy. The only durable solution, she said, was democratic change brought about by the Iranian people themselves.
The demonstration, held as world leaders convened for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, brought together Iranians from across the United States. Many participants had encountered flight cancellations and serious travel disruptions but nevertheless reached New York by taking alternative flights, trains, buses, and cars.
Their determination was reflected in the size, energy, and diversity of the gathering. Particularly striking was the remarkable presence of young Iranians, many of whom waved Iran's Lion and Sun-emblazoned flag and carried portraits of the Resistance's leaders, Massoud Rajavi and Maryam Rajavi. Others held photographs of political prisoners, executed dissidents, and victims of the regime's repression.
The participation of so many young people gave the rally a distinctly forward-looking character. Their chants and placards conveyed not only opposition to the present regime but also a clear vision of the political system they seek to establish: a democratic republic based on popular sovereignty, political pluralism, and the separation of religion and state.
One of the most prominent chants heard throughout the plaza was: "No to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the Supreme Leader."
Repeated by demonstrators across the gathering, the slogan underscored their rejection of dictatorship in all its forms — whether monarchical or theocratic. It also repudiated the false choice between returning to the deposed monarchy and preserving the clerical regime, affirming instead the demand for a democratic republic in which the Iranian people freely determine their future.
Rajavi's address formed the political centerpiece of the gathering. Speaking directly to world leaders meeting only steps away, she said the presence at the United Nations of officials implicated in crimes against humanity and genocide made a "mockery of human rights, peace, and justice."
She maintained that Iran's seat at the United Nations belonged not to those responsible for repression, executions, terrorism, and regional conflict, but to the Iranian people and their legitimate resistance for freedom, peace, and a democratic republic.
Rajavi warned that as long as the current regime remained in power, executions and domestic repression would continue, accompanied by terrorism and warmongering beyond Iran's borders. The regime's conduct at home and abroad, she argued, were not separate policies but interconnected elements of a system dependent upon violence for its survival.
Rejecting both war and appeasement, Rajavi emphasized that the necessary change must come from within Iran. Foreign governments, she said, could not deliver freedom to the Iranian people. Nor could concessions to the ruling clerics moderate a regime whose survival rested upon suppressing its population and exporting instability.
She placed particular emphasis on the struggle already underway inside the country. The demand for fundamental change, she said, was being voiced by Resistance Units operating throughout Iran and by political prisoners who continued to resist despite torture, solitary confinement, and the threat of execution.
According to Rajavi, these forces demonstrated that the Iranian people possessed both the capacity and the competence to bring about the transformation their country required. Their struggle showed that an organized force existed inside Iran with a strategy for challenging the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and dismantling the machinery of repression.
Rajavi also cited reports by the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Amnesty International, and the International Fact-Finding Mission concerning past massacres, crimes against humanity, and the violent suppression of recent uprisings.
She warned that repeated international inaction in the face of grave human rights violations had emboldened Tehran. The failure to hold regime officials accountable, she said, had encouraged them to believe that they could also pursue nuclear weapons, sponsor terrorism, and foment conflict across the region without facing meaningful consequences.
Rajavi called on the international community to recognize the Iranian people's right to overthrow the regime, as well as the right of Resistance Units and the National Liberation Army to confront the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the forces responsible for suppressing the population.
The demonstration took place amid what organizers described as a sharp escalation in political executions since mid-March, on a scale not seen since the 1988 massacre of political prisoners. According to the organizers, at least 40 political dissidents — most of them members of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) or participants in the January 2026 uprising — had been executed. More than 100 political prisoners reportedly remained under death sentences.
Large displays and photographs at the rally commemorated those killed by the regime and drew attention to the plight of prisoners facing execution. Demonstrators called upon the international community to take urgent action to prevent further executions and to hold Iranian officials accountable for crimes against humanity.
Former US Ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands praised Rajavi as an inspirational leader whose work had helped women assume central responsibilities throughout the Iranian Resistance. She contrasted the prominent role of women in the movement with the systematic misogyny of the ruling theocracy.
Sands presented Rajavi's Ten-Point Plan as a practical framework for Iran's democratic future. The plan calls for free elections, universal suffrage, political pluralism, freedom of expression and assembly, gender equality, minority rights, an independent judiciary, abolition of the death penalty, separation of religion and state, and a non-nuclear Iran at peace with the world.
She argued that a free and democratic Iran would not only protect the rights of its citizens but also serve the interests of regional and international security. Such an Iran, she said, would no longer finance terrorism, threaten neighboring countries, take foreign nationals hostage, pursue nuclear weapons, or fuel instability across the Middle East.
Retired General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, described the NCRI as a source of hope for a democratic transition. He urged the international community to trust the Iranian people and recognize their ability to determine their country's future.
Clark said Tehran's representatives should not enjoy international legitimacy while the regime denied its citizens fundamental rights, sponsored terrorism, imprisoned dissidents, and executed people for their political beliefs. He stressed that freedom could not be imposed from abroad and must ultimately be achieved by Iranians themselves.
Retired General Keith Kellogg similarly said that the NCRI, under Rajavi's leadership, possessed a blueprint for Iran's future governance. He described the Resistance Units active across all 31 provinces as an "engine of change" and said the demonstrators in New York were giving voice to their struggle.
Kellogg emphasized that military operations and sanctions could weaken the regime but could not, by themselves, produce democratic transformation. Lasting change, he said, depended upon the Iranian people. He characterized the NCRI's program as a roadmap toward a secular, non-nuclear republic, a provisional government, and free elections.
As delegates and officials entered the United Nations, the demonstrators outside delivered an unmistakable message: Iran's rulers must not be mistaken for the Iranian people.
The flags, portraits, chants, and strong presence of young people transformed Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza into a vivid display of resistance to every form of dictatorship. The gathering rejected both the crown and the turban, both the Shah and the Supreme Leader, and called instead for a democratic republic.
Rajavi's address gave that demand its central political formulation. The alternative to foreign war is not appeasement, she told the gathering, and the alternative to the clerical regime is not a return to monarchy. The path forward is democratic change by the Iranian people and their organized resistance — a change that would bring freedom to Iran and contribute to peace and stability throughout the region.
