"Down With Khameni! Up With Rajavi! Free Iran!"
Those were just some of the chants heard at the reflecting pool outside the U.S. Capitol Saturday as thousands of Iranian expatriates rallied to call for the downfall of the Ayatollah Khamenei and his near-half century old dictatorship in their homeland.
Rajavi is Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the largest resistance group of the largest Iranian resistance group known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). In remarks broadcast to the marchers from her headquarters in Paris, Rajavi noted it was also International Women's Day, and declared that "women are the force for change" and the overthrow of the theocratic regime "will be achieved through women's leadership."
She also drew a sharp line between her resistance organization and those who support Reza Pahlevi, son of the Shah of Iran deposed by Muslim insurgents in 1979. Referring to Pahlevi's followers as "fake opposition groups" and "neo-fascist monarchists," she charged that they are really "nothing more than pawns for the ruling religious fascism."
The rally came less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump said he sent a letter to Khamenei asking that they "negotiate" a new nuclear program, and telling Fox News, "I would prefer to make a deal, because I'm not looking to hurt Iran."
However, he said he had received no such letter and condemned Trump's offer as an effort by "bullying governments" to make a new deal over the nuclear program.
Most of the opposition figures who spoke to Newsmax, while praising Trump for his hardline policies toward the Khamenei regime, left little doubt that it wanted an end to the regime's nuclear policy.
Ali Safavi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the NCRI said: "The regime must dismantle all its nuclear facilities and cease its enrichment activities. Ultimately, the only definitive resolution to prevent a fundamentalist and terrorist regime from securing a nuclear bomb is its overthrow by the Iranian people and the resistance movement."
One of the speakers at the rally, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said Trump's offer and subsequent statement Friday was part of a long term strategy to topple Khamenei.
"My reaction was our president is a man of many, many strategies," Giuliani told us. "Like the Ayatollah's going to sit down and talk to us? When he doesn't, Israel's going to do what has to do. Then it's their fault, not our fault."
Giuliani called Trump's outreach to Khamenei "a brilliant statement."
"He's positioning us where we ought to be — going the last mile for peace," Giuliani said. "We'll go the last mile for peace. But if you're not for peace, and endangering the world, we'll be your fiercest enemy.
"My mother used to say you give an enemy enough rope to hang himself. I think Donald Trump grew up in that era. He's giving the ayatollah rope. Let's see what he does with it. "
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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