{"id":500817,"date":"2026-03-03T07:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500817\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T07:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:56:10","slug":"los-angeles-protesters-decry-u-s-israeli-attacks-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/500817\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles protesters decry U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Protests against the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran \u2014 which have led to a widening war in the Middle East<\/a> \u2014 were held Monday in dozens of cities nationwide. In downtown Los Angeles, about 150 people gathered in front of City Hall.<\/p>\n

As the protest spilled into the right-hand lanes of Spring Street, organizers handed out signs with slogans including \u201cStop the war on Iran,\u201d and thanked people for coming to protest after work. <\/p>\n

Speakers called the attack an illegal act of war that violated the sovereignty of Iran and its people in an effort to force regime change.<\/p>\n

Iranians \u201care not able to control their own resources and their own future, and that\u2019s not how it should be,\u201d said Aida Ashouri, a candidate for L.A. city attorney. \u201cIranians deserve, just like we do, the right to choose their own leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protests, happening<\/a> Monday in about 40 cities nationwide, as ABC-7 reported<\/a>, were organized by a loose coalition of about 30 groups. Activists said the attack on Iran could destabilize the Middle East and put Americans in danger. After the attacks, California military bases and others throughout the U.S. were stepping up security measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Against the backdrop of city lights on Monday evening, L.A. protesters chanted, \u201cNo more blood for oil\u201d and \u201cHands off Iran\u201d while nearby vendors handed out printed canvas totes and urged voters to sign local petitions.<\/p>\n

Some attendees, such as Joe Wagner, a city Metro employee, brought his own sign, which read, \u201cIran has a right to a nuclear deterrent against nuclear armed U.S. and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what U.S. imperialism does,\u201d the 54-year-old said, saying that the war was not just a result of President Trump\u2019s policies and warmongering but of \u201cphony nuclear deals\u201d Democrats had made with Iran in the past. <\/p>\n

The Iran nuclear deal, formally the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was finalized in 2015, when Obama was president. Iran agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanction relief, according to the deal. Trump pulled out of the agreement<\/a> in 2018, calling it a one-sided transaction. <\/p>\n

Wagner said the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> and dozens of other Iranian leaders over the weekend would not bring meaningful democratic change to Iran, and that the idea was \u201cpreposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n

On streets around the world over the weekend, there were protests in outrage or bursts of celebration. Demonstrations were held in cities including New York, Berlin, Paris and Vienna by members of the Iranian diaspora and their supporters, celebrating the end of Khamenei\u2019s rule. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Thousands celebrated Sunday in the streets of Westwood, the epicenter of the Iranian diaspora in Greater Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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

Greater Los Angeles is home to the largest concentration of people of Iranian descent outside Iran. Thousands of Iranian Americans demonstrated in Westwood over the weekend. The epicenter of L.A.\u2019s Iranian diaspora is known as \u201cTehrangeles.\u201d The gathering outside the Westwood Federal Building was an emotional celebration of the ayatollah\u2019s death, and participants spoke of those killed in the Iranian regime\u2019s recent crackdown on the country\u2019s protesters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But antiwar activists said the U.S. role in multiple conflicts \u2014 not just the attacks on Iran, but also Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and the removal of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro \u2014 did not benefit the common people of any country and only served to empower the rich. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a war about security. This is not a war to make American lives better, to make everyday Americans\u2019 lives better. This is a war for oil,\u201d Eduardo \u201cLalo\u201d Vargas, a candidate for California insurance commissioner, told the crowd.<\/p>\n

Vargas asked protesters to come back next weekend with a pledge to \u201cstay in the streets as long as it takes\u201d to demand an end to the strikes. <\/p>\n

President Trump said the military campaign could take several weeks or potentially \u201cfar longer.\u201d<\/a> Allies of the U.S. pledged to help stop Iran\u2019s missile and drone strikes. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed strikes on Israel for the first time in more than a year, and Israel fired back.<\/p>\n

The first U.S. military deaths<\/a> have been reported. Other deaths have been confirmed in Israel and Gulf nations, while Iran has said several hundred people have been killed there.<\/p>\n

Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protests against the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran \u2014 which have led to a widening war in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,13011,8212,8099,7053,228378,801,228377,803,228376,129,3,3590,27363,144554,21,19,22,20,25,24,1139,43832],"class_list":{"0":"post-500817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-americans","10":"tag-attack","11":"tag-celebration","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-drone-strike","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-iranian-diaspora","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-los-angeles-protester","18":"tag-middle-east","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-people","21":"tag-protest","22":"tag-spring-street","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-war","30":"tag-weekend"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500817","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=500817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}