SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Many Iranian Americans are hopeful about developments in Iran and the changes that will come following the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei. Some of them have demonstrated here in the Bay Area to show their support.
There are nearly 48,000 Iranian Americans in the Bay Area.
Mahmoud “Mo” Khossoussi grew up dreaming of coming to the United States.
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“…because I knew things were wrong in Iran. And I love the freedom of American culture,” said Khossoussi.
He arrived in the U.S in 1963 at the age of 17, learned English while working in restaurants. He then went to college.
For the past 43 years, he has owned Maykedeh Persian Cuisine – a legacy restaurant in North Beach.
Khossoussi is one of many Iranian Americans celebrating the U.S strikes against Iran — hopeful of a regime change.
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He attended Sunday’s demonstration in San Francisco.
“We were there to celebrate the beheading of the snake. Everybody was elated. We were dancing,” said Khoussoussi. “We were celebrating the downfall of this regime. The Iranian people are very thankful to the Americans, to Donald Trump to the Israelis and the Jewish people.”
Khossoussi’s wife is in Mashhad in eastern Iran right now where there’s no internet and concerns about losing electricity. His cousins are in Tehran.
“All of them are elated,” said Khossoussi.
ABC7 Eyewitness News also heard from retired software engineer Farideh Sedighi of Berkeley.
She and many others say they are grateful that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is gone.
“He is the most criminal person through history. He has killed so many people of Iran,” said Sedghi, a Berkeley resident.
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A widening U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran brought explosions in Tehran and missile strikes across the Middle East after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader.
Sedighi says she’s closely watching what happens next.
“We need regime change and the regime change by the people of Iran,” said Sedighi. “Iranian people’s message is very clear. Iranian people want no shah. No mullahs.”
Sedighi says Iranian people must determine their own future.
“This is a fight for democracy,” said Sedighi.
Monday night, a big rally got underway at the Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco. At the same time, a similar rally happened in San Jose. It was all part of a nationwide Day of Action.
Demonstrators say they are opposed to military attack on Iran and they say they want to end U.S. aggression there.
Layla Degani is with Party for Socialism and Liberation.
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“We’re standing here to stand up against us involvement in other countries… to keep U.S. hands out of the Middle East,” said Degani. “As an Iranian American, and as an American, I’m against the U.S. abandoning its own citizens and throwing its money into wars overseas instead of attending to its citizens here.”
She was born in the United States. Her family came to the United States in the 70s during the revolution.
“Emotions are high. Everyone is feeling all sorts of different things,” said Degani. “At the end of the day, the politics of Iran and who leads Iran is in the hands of the Iranian people.”
American casualties have begun to rise with six service members confirmed dead as of Monday night.
It’s a sad reality for President of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Otto Lee – a combat veteran who served in Iraq in 2009.
“You don’t really forget these things because you know people who have been injured or died from these incidents,” he said.
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