Thousands of Iranian exile came to Washington yesterday to protest their native country’s government. They belong to the largest Iranian resistance movement. They want the State Department to quit labeling them as terrorists and instead take a hard look at the current regime in Tehran.

For years the National Council of Resistance has tried to take over the government of Iran with no success. But, here gathered on the National Mall with several US lawmakers at their side, they say the times are changing. That the recent protests by students in Tehran and the government brutal response has given their cause great empathy.

Farzin Hashemi, is a spokesperson for the organization.

"I think the time has come for the Iranian people. The beginning of an end of the fundamentalist regime in Iran has already started. This is what everybody sees with the uprising inside Iran. With strong military army that we have, National Liberation Army of Iran, based on Iran-Iraq border and with the political alternative that we have…we have all the ingredients and the time has come for the Iranian people to overthrow this regime."

If that were to happen, Hashemi says his movement will create a secular democratic government and one that would seek to bring equality between men and women. The person, who would become the President of Iran, if the National Council of Resistance of Iran won control, is a woman, Maryam Rajavi…

Congresswoman, Iliana Ros-Lehtenin says the Mojahedin has been left with no other choice but to fight. "I commend you for your commitment to these ideals for democratic freedom and I urge you regardless of the smokes screens that is being put upon by our own State Department, to persist and insist on a democratic solution for Iran."
 
 

Thousands Protest Against Khatami in Washington, Agence France Presse, July 16

WASHINGTON - Thousand of demonstrators gathered before the steps of the Capitol here Friday in a protest organized by exiled Iranians to denounce rights abuses by the Tehran government and support student protests there.

The crowd waving Iranian flags chanted "Down with Khatami" and "No to the Regime of the Mullahs".

The demonstration here, timed to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the birth of Iran's resistance movement, also served to show solidarity with student protests that broke out in Tehran last week, spread to other Iranian cities and have been met by a harsh government crackdown.

Numbering more than 12,000, according to organizers, the demonstrators in Washington hailed from all over the United States, including many from New York, Florida, California and Texas.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is affiliated with the National Liberation Army, or People's Mujahedeen, had planned the demonstration before the past week's eruption of unrest in Iran and the government's crackdown in response.

But the latest news from home took center stage here Friday. "The events of the past week clearly showed that the Iranian people have the legitimate right to resist violent repression," the NCRI said in a statement.

Though the White House and US State Department have expressed support for the Iranian president, several members of Congress support the Iranian opposition, including Democratic Senators Robert Torricelli and Mary Landrieu and Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

"Some in Washington, in particular the administration ... would like us to believe in a fairy tale," said Ros-Lehtinen, who took to the podium to speak to the demonstrators. "But since the election of (Khatami) two years ago, he is still abusing the Iranian people."
 
 

Angry Iranian Students Lash Out at Khatami, Agence France Presse, July 15

TEHRAN - Iranian students bitterly criticized President Mohammad Khatami on Thursday, saying he tricked them with empty promises after the Islamic regime crushed their growing pro-reform movement.

"I can't believe it's all over," said one disillusioned student, just a day after a conservative rally in the streets of Tehran effectively ended hopes Khatami would satisfy their demands for change in the Islamic republic.

"Now we can see he's just a mullah like all the others," said another, echoing the anger felt by many here after last week's protests against the closure of a popular reformist newspaper ended in a bloody crackdown by police.

Some expressed bewilderment that the nation's top security council, chaired by Khatami, said only one person had been killed and three others wounded in the violence at Tehran university, a figure sharply at odds with newspaper accounts.

In perhaps the harshest blow to the hopes of students, Khatami himself decreed Tuesday that the protests would no longer be tolerated by the government.

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