{"id":174594,"date":"2026-03-02T04:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174594\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:04:23","slug":"jacksonville-iranian-community-gathers-to-celebrate-regime-change-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174594\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Iranian community gathers to celebrate regime change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstcoastnews.com\/article\/news\/nation-world\/israeli-strikes-tehran-iran-counterattack-supreme-leader-killed\/507-36e26e5b-367b-48e2-9ee8-c540b89d7463\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:developments in Iran;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">developments in Iran <\/a>have many members of the Iranian community in Jacksonville feeling hopeful for a better future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A group gathered at Hanna Park Sunday for a celebration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The main message from the group was that they don\u2019t view it as an attack, but as a rescue mission for their home country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt was unbelief and disbelief in a great way,&#8221; Ali Jaber-Ansari said after arriving at the celebration. &#8220;We\u2019ve been waiting for years for this day to come. We had to flee Iran for our safety when I was a young man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jaber-Ansari says he hasn\u2019t returned to Iran ever since, but with new hope for a regime change, he may finally be ready to start planning a visit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI was talking with my mom on the phone,&#8221; Jaber-Ansari said. &#8220;I said, \u2018I can\u2019t wait to come back, go to the homeland to visit family I have not seen for 40 years.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Jaber-Ansari was joined by several dozen members of the Iranian community in Jacksonville to celebrate what they feel is a step toward freedom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt was just some problems and some challenges our people had to see just because of that leadership, just because of that mindset,&#8221; Mark Karami said during the celebration. &#8220;Now it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The celebration was a stark contrast to the scene in Downtown Jacksonville Saturday, where <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/hands-off-iran-rally-fills-043026347.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:activists organized a protest against the strikes on Iran.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">activists organized a protest against the strikes on Iran.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI know there\u2019s some people that might oppose this, but from the Iranian people, we couldn\u2019t be any more grateful, thankful for the United States for stepping in,&#8221; Jaber-Ansari said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For the first time in a long time, Jaber-Ansari says he\u2019s excited about what the future could hold for Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe\u2019re all congratulating each other for this day,&#8221; said Jaber-Ansari. &#8220;It\u2019s a day of celebration and just being thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The developments in Iran have many members of the Iranian community in Jacksonville feeling hopeful for a better&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82731,21539,82730,116,118,117,82661],"class_list":["post-174594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-ali-jaber-ansari","tag-iran","tag-iranian-community","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-regime-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}