Protests against the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran — which have led to a widening war in the Middle East — were held Monday in dozens of cities nationwide. In downtown Los Angeles, about 150 people gathered in front of City Hall.
As the protest spilled into the right-hand lanes of Spring Street, organizers handed out signs with slogans including “Stop the war on Iran,” and thanked people for coming to protest after work.
Speakers called the attack an illegal act of war that violated the sovereignty of Iran and its people in an effort to force regime change.
Iranians “are not able to control their own resources and their own future, and that’s not how it should be,” said Aida Ashouri, a candidate for L.A. city attorney. “Iranians deserve, just like we do, the right to choose their own leaders.”
The protests, happening Monday in about 40 cities nationwide, as ABC-7 reported, were organized by a loose coalition of about 30 groups. Activists said the attack on Iran could destabilize the Middle East and put Americans in danger. After the attacks, California military bases and others throughout the U.S. were stepping up security measures.
Against the backdrop of city lights on Monday evening, L.A. protesters chanted, “No more blood for oil” and “Hands off Iran” while nearby vendors handed out printed canvas totes and urged voters to sign local petitions.
Some attendees, such as Joe Wagner, a city Metro employee, brought his own sign, which read, “Iran has a right to a nuclear deterrent against nuclear armed U.S. and Israel.”
“This is what U.S. imperialism does,” the 54-year-old said, saying that the war was not just a result of President Trump’s policies and warmongering but of “phony nuclear deals” Democrats had made with Iran in the past.
The Iran nuclear deal, formally the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was finalized in 2015, when Obama was president. Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief, according to the deal. Trump pulled out of the agreement in 2018, calling it a one-sided transaction.
Wagner said the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of other Iranian leaders over the weekend would not bring meaningful democratic change to Iran, and that the idea was “preposterous.”
On streets around the world over the weekend, there were protests in outrage or bursts of celebration. Demonstrations were held in cities including New York, Berlin, Paris and Vienna by members of the Iranian diaspora and their supporters, celebrating the end of Khamenei’s rule.
Thousands celebrated Sunday in the streets of Westwood, the epicenter of the Iranian diaspora in Greater Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
Greater Los Angeles is home to the largest concentration of people of Iranian descent outside Iran. Thousands of Iranian Americans demonstrated in Westwood over the weekend. The epicenter of L.A.’s Iranian diaspora is known as “Tehrangeles.” The gathering outside the Westwood Federal Building was an emotional celebration of the ayatollah’s death, and participants spoke of those killed in the Iranian regime’s recent crackdown on the country’s protesters.
But antiwar activists said the U.S. role in multiple conflicts — not just the attacks on Iran, but also Israel’s war in Gaza and the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — did not benefit the common people of any country and only served to empower the rich.
“This is not a war about security. This is not a war to make American lives better, to make everyday Americans’ lives better. This is a war for oil,” Eduardo “Lalo” Vargas, a candidate for California insurance commissioner, told the crowd.
Vargas asked protesters to come back next weekend with a pledge to “stay in the streets as long as it takes” to demand an end to the strikes.
President Trump said the military campaign could take several weeks or potentially “far longer.” Allies of the U.S. pledged to help stop Iran’s missile and drone strikes. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed strikes on Israel for the first time in more than a year, and Israel fired back.
The first U.S. military deaths have been reported. Other deaths have been confirmed in Israel and Gulf nations, while Iran has said several hundred people have been killed there.
Associated Press contributed to this report.