The recent record of executions of opponents of the theocratic regime in Iran has fueled the latest calls for its overthrow by prominent Democrat and Republican leaders in the U.S.
At a standing-room-only meeting hosted by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities, prominent Americans from Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development in President Donald Trump's first term, to Democrat Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire called for the end to the 46-year-old Islamic Republic of Iran.
Retired Gen. James Jones, onetime U.S. Marine Corps commandant and national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, was the first to say that "1,192 [Iranians] were hanged in the last year, and 56 of them were women."
"That is the highest number of executions in Iran in 30 years," Jones said, adding that 2,360 executions have occurred since Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian took office in July 2024.
"And there are now 18 Iranians on death row for cooperating with opposition groups," he said.
Jones' call for the overthrow of the regime was echoed by Shaheen, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"Despite a crumbling economy, Iran continues to have many executions, nuclear threats, and [is] supplying Russia's war machine," she said.
As to how the regime can be overthrown, Jones and other speakers strongly urged enactment of two bipartisan resolutions that put the U.S. squarely on the side of the coalition of Iranian exile groups seeking a new government in Tehran.
Senate Resolution 145 affirms Iran's right to determine its own destiny.
House Resolution 166 acknowledges the role of the resistance groups to the regime and formally rejects the concept of theocracy.
The role of public diplomacy and getting the message of the opposition into Iran was stressed by Heather Nauert, top spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department in the first Trump administration.
The vision of a free Iran, she told the audience, "rests on public diplomacy and the ability to tell the truth to the Iranian people."
An increased role in communicating the other side of news from that spread by the regime must come, Nauert stressed, because "Iran has increased spending on propaganda and disinformation and is joining Moscow and Beijing in expanding untruths."
Referring to smaller television and radio outlets through which opposition groups beam their message into Iran, Nauert warned that "[w]e can't let them fade. We have truth on our side and we must keep [the exiles'] stories in the light."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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