{"id":199904,"date":"2026-03-02T01:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199904\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T01:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T01:33:09","slug":"thousands-rally-in-westwood-as-u-s-iran-war-escalates-calling-for-a-free-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/199904\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands rally in Westwood as U.S.-Iran war escalates, calling for a ‘free Iran’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thousands gathered outside the Westwood Federal Building on Sunday afternoon celebrating the fall of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dreaming of a \u201cfree Iran\u201d as war continued to escalate between Iran and a united U.S. and Israel. <\/p>\n

Residents of Los Angeles\u2019 massive Persian diaspora continued to revel<\/a> in the news of Khamenei\u2019s death after the U.S. and Israel launched surprise attacks across the nation on Saturday. Many at Sunday\u2019s demonstration were draped in American, Israeli or Iranian flags, the latter emblazoned with a golden lion that represented the traditional banner abandoned when the Islamic Republic came to power. Some wore green hats that said, \u201cMake Iran Great Again.\u201d <\/p>\n

Members of the crowd chanted for a \u201cfree Iran\u201d and danced in shuttered streets. <\/p>\n

\"Thousands <\/p>\n

Thousands of demonstrators attend a rally outside the Westwood Federal Building on Sunday. <\/p>\n

(Jason Armond\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled,\u201d said demonstrator Shawn Araghi, who left Iran as an 8-year-old when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted in 1979. \u201cMost people think Iranians are the same as the regime. The people are way different than the regime. They could care less about the people. That\u2019s why they\u2019re killing them left and right.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, military officials confirmed that three U.S. service members were killed and five seriously wounded in a widening war across the Middle East,<\/a> with intensifying counterattacks by Iran across the region. Hundreds in Iran, including dozens of civilians at a school, were reported dead in the attacks, and dozens more across the region. <\/p>\n

But for many in and around Westwood \u2014 the epicenter of L.A.\u2019s sprawling Iranian diaspora, earning the nickname \u201cTehrangeles\u201d \u2014 the attacks on Iran signaled hope for a regime change that could bring increased freedom to their homeland.<\/p>\n

The Greater Los Angeles area is home to the largest concentration of people of Iranian descent outside Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, it has served as a capital for exiles.<\/p>\n

Nilgoon Askari, a native of Iran, was in attendance at Sunday\u2019s demonstration. She said Iranian Americans had gathered in West Los Angeles or downtown L.A. every weekend in February since Iranian security forces used lethal force to suppress a widespread popular uprising<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Askari said her best friend was killed in the crackdown on protesters and some of her relatives were arrested. The demonstrations in L.A. were often tearful affairs, she said. Sunday was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was impossible for 47 years,\u201d Askari said of the killing of Iran\u2019s supreme leader. She said President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had assassinated a \u201cdictator\u201d whom the Iranian people could not depose themselves.<\/p>\n

Askari and Araghi said they hoped the Islamic Republic would fall and the country will come under the leadership of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah.<\/p>\n

Araghi said he wasn\u2019t concerned that Israel or the United States would meddle in the future of Iran. \u201cAnything is better than the current regime,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be worse than this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writers Corinne Purtill and Grace Toohey contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands gathered outside the Westwood Federal Building on Sunday afternoon celebrating the fall of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[10869,4544,92967,340,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,92968,592,92971,31447,92969,3293,92970,2664,36192],"class_list":{"0":"post-199904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-demonstration","9":"tag-dozen","10":"tag-free-iran","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-l-a","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-headlines","15":"tag-la-news","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-nilgoon-askari","21":"tag-people","22":"tag-shah-mohammad-reza-pahlavi","23":"tag-sunday-afternoon","24":"tag-surprise-attack","25":"tag-thousand","26":"tag-united-u-s","27":"tag-war","28":"tag-westwood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199904","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=199904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}