September 27-2013
The Mojahedin-e Khalq staged a Manhattan demonstration Tuesday to protest the appearance of President Rohani before the UN General Assembly.
Waving Iranian flags and carrying signs, a throng of people gathered in a street near the United Nations, saying Rohani’s moves toward a more conciliatory stance and dialogue with the United States are merely a ruse.
“He’s not a moderate, he’s playing the West just as the former presidents of Iran have played former presidents of the United States,” said Amir Emadi, 26, of San Diego, California. He said his father was one of 52 people killed at Camp Ashraf earlier this month.
He said the 52 Mojahedin members were murdered at the behest of the Iranian president.
“If Obama thinks that he’s shaking the hands of a moderate, he’s actually shaking some bloody hands,” said Emadi. “Rohani does not represent the Iranian people.”
“These martyrs were murdered,” shouted former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, “because they dared to dream of an Iran that had a democracy.”
The crowd of at least several hundred people heard from speakers including Kennedy, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton.
Those at the rally (photo below) said Iran’s government had to take some actions to prove the leadership’s sincerity, not just demand sanctions be lifted, and that Iran had made empty gestures about negotiations in the past.
“If we’re going to approach these negotiations with maturity and realism, we must recognize that the Iranian regime has taken us down this road before, and they fooled us before,” Giuliani said. “If we let them fool us again, then we are fools.”
But President Obama long ago made clear that sanctions would not be lifted based on Iranian pledges but only based on actual actions.
The Iranians at the rally carried signs and wore t-shirts in support of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, and accused Rohani of having a long history of taking action against members of the opposition.
“The world’s conscience needs to speak up” against Iran’s ruling power, said Angela Mostashari, 52, a former nurse from Los Angeles.
