![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772340729_212_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nReza Khaleghian, 70, came bursting through the door of Naab Cafe on Saturday morning, phone pressed to his ear, fist held in the air, screaming the news in Farsi at anyone who would listen: \u201cKhamenei is dead!\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon, President Trump would confirm the death of Iran\u2019s supreme leader in a historic attack by the United States and Israel. A sea of flag-waving revelers would later fill the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran Avenue.<\/p>\n
But as bombs fell 7,500 miles away in Tehran, members of West L.A.\u2019s Iranian American community spent Saturday celebrating a day some had been awaiting for nearly half a century.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fantastic day we could not even imagine in our dreams,\u201d said Beha Pangrazio, 35. She had emigrated from Tehran 10 years ago and brought her husband, infant son and mother to celebrate in Westwood, the epicenter of L.A.\u2019s sprawling Iranian diaspora. \u201cHopefully the regime will change, the shah will return back home and we will have a glorious future for Iran.\u201d<\/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. By 2019, more than half of Iranian immigrants to the U.S. lived in California, with 29% \u2014 nearly 140,000 people \u2014 living in Los Angeles County alone, according to the Migration Policy Institute.<\/p>\n
Many settled in and around Westwood, earning the area the nickname \u201cTehrangeles.\u201d<\/p>\n
As word spread on social media of a large demonstration scheduled for later in the day in support of the strikes, people gathered in the neighborhood\u2019s shops and cafes to celebrate the news.<\/p>\n
Car horns blared and Persian music pumped through open windows. A Tesla Cybertruck festooned with two giant flags of the Imperial State of Iran, the monarchy overthrown in 1979, sped up Veteran Avenue; a Mercedes with the same flag billowing from an open sunroof turned in the other direction. Phones pinged with constant texts from friends and relatives watching the news around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to understand that we have been raised in preparation for this day,\u201d said Ryan Abrams, 34, as he and his wife, Ashley Abrams, 32, walked the neighborhood with their dog.<\/p>\n
He wore the lion-and-sun flag of the shah\u2019s Iran tied like a cape around his shoulders; she wore a similarly sized Israeli flag around hers. Both of their Jewish Iranian families immigrated in 1979 to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur whole lives we\u2019ve had to navigate our different identities, coming from both Persian and Jewish backgrounds,\u201d he said. \u201cToday we see one step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Assal Pahlevan raises the historical Iranian lion and sun flag during a rally Saturday in Westwood.<\/p>\n
Back at Naab Cafe, where \u201cMake Iran Great Again\u201d signs and photos of Iran\u2019s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi hung in the windows facing Westwood Boulevard, Khaleghian and a growing group of friends gathered around a pair of outdoor tables, each of them leaping from their seats to greet each new arrival with embraces and exclamations of \u201cjavid Shah\u201d \u2014 long live the shah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 70 years old. This is the best time, ever, in my life. Freedom for my country. Best day of my life,\u201d Khaleghian said. \u201cI love Trump! I want to make sure he knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their waiter Amir, who preferred not to share his last name, ferried packed peach-and-pineapple hookahs and tall glasses of pressed watermelon juice from the cafe\u2019s kitchen to the table.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old Tehran native took to the streets during the 2009 Green Revolution and was \u201cthrilled\u201d by the news of the U.S. attack, though he acknowledged the future was uncertain.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn one hand, you hate all of them so bad you want them all to die,\u201d he said of the regime. \u201cOn the other hand \u2014 war. Things can go wrong in war. But me and a lot of people think war is better than what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the table, Bob (he declined to give his last name) let out a whoop of celebration \u2014 he said he\u2019d placed a bet some time ago on the prediction market app Kalshi that Khamenei would be dead by the end of February and was about to collect. Phones rattled against the tabletop with constant texts. Khaleghian reached for the plastic hookah pipe; a friend wrested it from his hand, reminding him of his cardiologist\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n
The five men, all of whom emigrated decades ago from Tehran, argued playfully over who had correctly predicted that Trump would follow through on his threats to attack Iran and who had held out doubts. Some said they were pleasantly surprised that their U.S.-born adult children, who had never set foot in Iran, seemed as elated by the news as they were.<\/p>\n
All were planning to return as soon as they could to a country most had not seen since leaving decades earlier. \u201cNext summer, I\u2019m not going to Italy. I\u2019m going to Iran,\u201d said Khaleghian, pounding the table for emphasis. \u201cGod willing.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Hundreds](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772340730_337_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Hundreds rally and celebrate in Westwood on Saturday after news of airstrikes in Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou guys are so hopeful,\u201d said Paul Daneshrad, 59. \u201cThe more important question is, does this lead to meaningful change?\u201d His friends groaned and tried to shush him; he waved them off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people aren\u2019t armed, so unless the army, or part of the army, decides to support the people, there\u2019s going to be 50 people taking\u201d the place of each leader killed, he said.<\/p>\n
No one knew what the next day was going to bring, said Sepehr, 58, who declined to give his last name. The regime had held on for nearly half a century; it was too soon to know just how bloody its exit might be.<\/p>\n
But Persian culture has persisted for more than 3,000 years, he said. In that context, what was a mere 47 years? \u201cIt\u2019s a bad dream,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reza Khaleghian, 70, came bursting through the door of Naab Cafe on Saturday morning, phone pressed to his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,275,13794,801,227145,4281,227143,3,227144,3590,8293,227142,4456,153670,21,19,22,20,25,24,162575,2394],"class_list":{"0":"post-496882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-day","10":"tag-friend","11":"tag-iran","12":"tag-last-name","13":"tag-los-angeles-times","14":"tag-naab-cafe","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-outdoor-table","17":"tag-people","18":"tag-phone","19":"tag-reza-khaleghian","20":"tag-shah","21":"tag-tehran","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-westwood","29":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}