MUNICH, Germany\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Some 250,000 people demonstrated Saturday against Iran\u2019s government on the sidelines of a gathering of world leaders in Germany, police said, answering a call from Iran \u2019s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi for increased international pressure on Tehran. <\/p>\n
Banging drums and chanting for regime change, the giant and boisterous rally near the site of the Munich Security Conference was part of what Pahlavi described as a \u201cglobal day of action\u201d to support Iranians in the wake of deadly nationwide protests. He also called for demonstrations in Los Angeles and Toronto. Hundreds of people turned out Saturday for a rally in downtown Los Angeles, according to news reports. <\/p>\n
In Munich, police said in a post on X, the number of protesters reached about 250,000, more than the organizers had expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cChange, change, regime change!\u201d the huge crowd chanted, waving green-white-and-red flags with lion and sun emblems, the Iranian flag before its 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Pahlavi dynasty. <\/p>\n
At a news conference, Pahlavi, the son of Iran\u2019s last shah, warned of more deaths in Iran if \u201cdemocracies stand by and watch\u201d following Tehran\u2019s deadly crackdown on protesters last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gather at an hour of profound peril to ask: Will the world stand with the people of Iran?\u201d he asked. He added that the survival of Iran\u2019s government \u201csends a clear signal to every bully: Kill enough people and you stay in power.\u201d <\/p>\n
An estimated 350,000 people marched on the streets of Toronto as part of the \u201cGlobal Day of Action\u201d rally, Toronto police spokesperson Laura Brabant said.<\/p>\n
At the Munich rally, demonstrators sported \u201cMake Iran Great Again\u201d red caps, mimicking the MAGA caps worn by President Trump\u2019s supporters. Among those sporting the caps was U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who gave a speech to the crowd during which he was photographed holding up the headwear.<\/p>\n
Many at the rally waved placards showing Pahlavi, some that called him a king. The son of Iran\u2019s late deposed shah has been in exile for nearly 50 years but is trying to position himself as a player in Iran\u2019s future. <\/p>\n
The crowd chanted, \u201cPahlavi for Iran\u201d and \u201cdemocracy for Iran\u201d as drums and cymbals sounded. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have huge hopes and [are] looking forward that the regime is going to change hopefully,\u201d said Daniyal Mohtashamian, a demonstrator who traveled from Zurich to speak for protesters inside Iran who faced repression. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an internet blackout and their voices are not going outside of Iran,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
About 500 protesters also rallied outside the presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, with many holding up banners with slogans against Iran\u2019s government and in favor of Pahlavi.<\/p>\n
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says at least 7,005 people were killed in last month\u2019s protests, including 214 government forces. It has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of violence and unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists inside Iran to verify deaths.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. Iran\u2019s theocracy in the past has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, as authorities have disrupted internet access and international calls in Iran.<\/p>\n
Iranian leaders are facing renewed pressure from Trump, who has threatened U.S. military action. Trump wants Iran to further scale back its nuclear program. He said Friday that regime change in Iran \u201cwould be the best thing that could happen.\u201d <\/p>\n
Iran was also the focus of protests in Munich on Friday, the opening day of Munich\u2019s annual security conference in the city gathering European leaders and global security figures. Supporters of the Iranian opposition group People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, demonstrated.<\/p>\n
Hodina writes for the Associated Press. AP journalists Cedar Attanasio in Seattle, John Leicester in Paris and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNICH, Germany\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Some 250,000 people demonstrated Saturday against Iran\u2019s government on the sidelines of a gathering of world leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[84829,84830,39715,405,19378,48,52,51,47,50,49,84827,83038,84831,84826,592,3020,11276,61895,33472,84828],"class_list":["post-178681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bully","tag-clear-signal","tag-crown-prince","tag-government","tag-iran","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-more-death","tag-munich","tag-munich-security-conference","tag-pahlavi","tag-people","tag-president-trump","tag-protester","tag-regime-change","tag-survival","tag-tehran-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}