WASHINGTON - A member of Congress shouted "death to the dictators" before thousands of cheering Iranian-Americans trying to convince Washington that both the political and clerical leaders in Iran must be brought down.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., told the crowd in a rally at the base of Capitol Hill that Iran's rulers all face inevitable overthrow.

"It is time for the State Department to review its policy on the Iranian regime as well as the resistance," Ackerman said Friday. "Death to the dictators, down with the mullahs."

Several members of Congress joined the rally which called on the Clinton administration to back the resistance group Mujahedeen Khalq, which the State Department labels a terrorist organization.

"We are convinced that tangoing with Tehran's tyrants will lead nowhere," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., saying she was speaking for the majority of the House who have signed petitions or voted in support of the Mujahedeen Khalq.

… The rally was organized by the Paris-based National Council for Resistance of Iran, overseer of both the Mujahedeen, which operates in Iran, and the National Liberation Army, which has 30,000 soldiers in camps on the Iranian border in Iraq.

A spokesman for the Washington rally, Alireza Jafarzadeh, said it was aimed at countering reports that the student protesters were merely backing Khatami's reform efforts.

Resistance leaders said 12,000 Iranian Americans from around the country were at the rally. Police had no official estimate.
 
 

Sen. Torricelli: "It’s Time to Bring That Government to an End", CNN (World Today), July 16

A week of demonstrations in Iran, the most violence since the 1979 revolution that unseated the Shah, spilled over in to Washington Friday when thousands of demonstrators turned out on the Mall to show their support for pro-democracy forces in Iran…

[Crowd chanting : Rajavi Yes! Khatami No! They are killers, They must go.]

Washington rally calling for the overthrow of President Mohammed Khatami through support of several members of Congress critical of the US administration Iran policy.

Senator Torricelli (D-NJ): "This administration gave the Tehran government another chance. There might say they had another chance, they’ve lost their last chance. They don’t deserve any more chances. It’s time to bring that government to an end."

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL): "We’re not fooled by these cosmetic reforms. As long as the assassinations continues, as long as the stoning continue, and as long as the denial of human rights continue, the people of Iran will continue their protest and they will continue to support for resistance movement…

Washington continues to pursuit improved relation with the Khatami’s government, but analysts warned if US ignores those calling for democratic reforms it could come back to hunt them, if and when the reformers succeed.
 
 

Thousands Denounce Rights Violations, Tehran's Reaction to Student Protests, The Washington Post, July 17

Zahra Sadeghpour clutched a red leather-bound book containing the names and stories of more than 1,000 people who have been executed in Iran... One of those stories is her brother's. He was tortured and killed in 1989, Sadeghpour said, because "he was known to voice his opinion."

Sadeghpour… traveled from Watertown, Mass., to join thousands of Iranian Americans who thronged the Mall yesterday to show their solidarity with the student protesters who have roiled Iran in recent weeks and to call for the overthrow of Iran's cleric-led government.

The protesters on the Mall waved flags and chanted in Farsi and English. "From the blood of Iranian students, Iran becomes colorful, and Khatemi is exposed!" they shouted in Farsi, referring to President Mohammed Khatemi. "The only way to freedom is to support the Mujaheddin and topple this regime with armed struggle!"

… In speeches at the rally, protesters and members of Congress called for an end to American "appeasement" of Khatemi, whom many in the West view as a moderate and a reformer…

Khatemi is no different from his predecessors, said Soona Samsami, the U.S. representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. "Khatemi is not a moderate. He is a man of the system," she said in an interview...

The recent arrests of 13 Iranian Jews on espionage charges marks "a new, formerly unthinkable level of terror by an ever more ruthless regime," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) told the protesters. She then addressed the Clinton administration and the State Department, saying, "Stop sending mixed messages to the brutal mullah regime."

Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.) also spoke at the rally.

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