June 21 (UPI) -- Thousands of Iranian Americans rallied outside the U.S. State Department and White House in Washington, D.C., on Friday to push for a regime change and increased sanctions on Tehran.

The event, organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities, included appearances by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane, former Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., and Adam Ereli, former deputy spokesman for the State Department ambassador.

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, spoke from Europe by video feed. She presented a 10-point plan to push democracy in Iran.

"Yes, the disgraceful demonization campaign against the Iranian Resistance in the pro-appeasement media seeks to perpetuate the narrative that the people of Iran are better off with the theocratic rule of the mullahs; There is no alternative, and don't even think or talk about it," she said.

"Their conclusion is: The religious fascism must be appeased and there are no other options."

In addition for increased sanctions on the Iranian regime, demonstrators called for the United States to designate the Ministry of Intelligence and Security as a foreign terrorist organization. </s> Demonstrators stormed the Iranian consulate in Iraq on Friday, in protest of corruption and misrule by Iraq's political elite. The angry protesters damaged the consulate's offices and shouted anti-Iranian slogans while others briefly took workers hostage at a nearby oilfield.

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After five days of deadly demonstrations in the southern city of Basra, in which government buildings have been ransacked and set alight, protesters broke in and damaged the consulate's offices, shouting condemnation of what many perceive as Iran's sway over Iraq's political affairs.

Demonstrators storm the Iranian consulate in Iraq (Photo: AFP)

Security sources said the consulate was empty when the crowd burst in. Iraq's Foreign Ministry said the storming of the consulate, which it deeply regretted, had nothing to do with protesters' demands.

"The targeting of diplomatic missions is unacceptable and detrimental to the interests of Iraq," said ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub.

Iran, however, blamed Iraq for failing to protect its embassy and said it expected Baghdad to "identify and punish the attackers quickly," Bahram Qassemi, the spokesman for the ministry, told journalists, according to state media.

The Iraqi ambassador to Tehran was later summoned to the foreign ministry over the complaints.

Angry protesters storm the Iranian consulate in southern Iraq (צילום: רויטרס)

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Several foreign governments have consulates in the city, including the United States and Russia. In a statement, the US State Department condemned the violence against diplomats and called on "all parties, including security forces and protesters, to uphold the right of peaceful protest and to protect diplomats and their facilities."

Late in the day some 65 kilometers north-west of Iraq's second biggest city, another group of protesters entered a water treatment facility linked to the West Qurna 2 oilfield, managed by Russia's Lukoil.

The protesters held two Iraqi employees hostage for about an hour before leaving the facility peacefully, according to a Lukoil source and a source with Basra's energy police. Production was not disrupted, a manager at the oilfield said.

The unrest in Basra could have deeper implications for a country that imports most of its food.

Protesters shouting anti-Iranian slogans (Photo: EPA)

Since Thursday, protesters have shut Iraq's only major sea port at Umm Qasr, 60 km (40 miles) south of Basra. It remained shut on Friday, local officials and security sources said, although oil exports, carried out from offshore platforms, have not been affected.

Sweep clean

Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water in the heat of summer, with protests intensifying on Monday.

Since then at least 12 demonstrators have died in the city of 2 million, mostly in clashes with security forces, as demonstrators torched government buildings and the offices of political parties, whose leaders are all vying to form Iraq's ruling coalition.

On Friday, two protesters died from gunshot wounds and 39 were wounded, local health and security sources said. A curfew was imposed shortly before 9pm local time, but residents still targeted a building belonging to Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, the grouping of mostly Iran-backed Shi'ite militias.

Iraqi protesters set fire to Iran consulate (Photo: Reuters)

The national security council of the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, met on Friday and said it was investigating casualties at the protests.

The storming of the consulate came hours after Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric called for a political shakeup in Baghdad and a halt to violence against the protesters.

Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the ultimate authority for devout members of Iraq's Shi'ite majority who normally holds himself above day-to-day politics, placed blame for the unrest with political leaders and said a new government should be formed, "different from its predecessors."

Smaller protests also took place on Friday in other cities in Iraq, including Karbala and Baghdad.

New crisis

The unrest has thrust Iraq into a major new crisis at a time when politicians have yet to agree on a new government after an inconclusive election in May. The new parliament finally met on Monday for the first time, but broke up after a day having failed to elect a speaker, much less name the next prime minister.

Parliament's interim leader summoned lawmakers to an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest.

Leading political figures, embroiled in government formation negotiations in Baghdad, have scrambled to respond to the crisis, condemning rivals for inaction.

Demonstrations in the southern Iraqi city, Basra (Photo: AP)

Iraq's political factions mainly came together in the past four years during a war against Islamic State. Baghdad's two most influential allies, Washington and Tehran, also backed the government despite their deep hostility to each other.

But since Islamic State was largely defeated last year, divisions have resurfaced. Shi'ites in the south, where most of Iraq's oil wealth is produced, say Baghdad politicians have squandered state funds while leaving them desperate.

Moqtada al-Sadr, a populist Shi'ite cleric whose electoral bloc came first in May's election, said on Twitter that Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi must release more funds for Basra.

Sadr, the former leader of an anti-American Shi'ite sectarian militia who has reinvented himself as an anti-corruption campaigner, has allied himself with prime minister Abadi.

Their alliance is competing to form a government against a rival bloc backed by Abadi's predecessor Nuri al-Maliki and the leader of an Iran-backed Shi'ite armed group, Hadi al-Amiri. Amiri called on Abadi to resign over the crisis on Friday. </s> Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington have rattled Sarah Sakha, 23, an Iranian American who recently graduated from college in the U.S. and got a job at a nonprofit in New York.

She fears for the safety of relatives and friends in Iran, and worries that few Americans recognize the perils of another military conflict in the Mideast and about what she describes as "Iraq 2.0."

Alarmed by the flurry of news alerts, she has broken down crying at work.

"The constant emotional stress and terror I feel as a first-generation Iranian American is undeniable," Sakha said. "I think it's especially terrifying how things can change overnight, literally."

Sakha is among nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. of Iranian ancestry, many of whom are closely following developments as Washington and Tehran head toward a possible clash.

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. was "cocked and loaded" to retaliate against Iran for downing a U.S. surveillance drone. But he said he called off the strike minutes before it was set to launch when he heard 150 civilians could die, he said.

In an interview with NBC News' Chuck Todd on Friday, Trump said a plan was "ready to go subject my approval."

As the crisis mounts, several Iranian American civic organizations and advocacy groups are on high alert, with some calling for the U.S. and Iranian governments to exercise caution before the situation spirals into violence.

The National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based group that advocates for improved relations between the two countries, pleaded for "restraint."

"Both Trump and his inner circle and Iran’s leadership should recognize that the U.S. and Iran have entered an escalation spiral. Adding fuel to the fire risks stoking this crisis to the point of no return," Jamal Abdi, the group's president, said in a statement.

"The night is always darkest before the dawn. We urge all leaders to put their countries’ best interests in mind and firmly step away from the path to war," Abdi added.

The American Iranian Council, a public policy group that focuses on diplomacy surrounding Iran, released a similar statement this week, faulting both the U.S. and Iran for stoking tensions.

"AIC calls on both countries to immediately cease their aggressive and escalating rhetoric," the group said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether any major Iranian American advocacy groups planned to organize aid to families in Iran, many of whom have been separated from loved ones in the U.S. by the Trump administration's travel ban or struggled under tough economic sanctions on their country.

Dealing with the icy relationship between the U.S. and Iran is nothing new for many Iranian Americans. They saw the nuclear accords under President Barack Obama give way to more openly hostile rhetoric from Trump, who has accused the Iranian regime of doing "bad, bad things.*

Ali Ghambari, founder of the Iranian American Community Alliance, a Seattle-based nonprofit, said he would not be surprised if American groups provided financial assistance to Iranian nationals during a hypothetical conflict.

Ghambari, 60, who has lived in the U.S. since 1979, said he was grateful that Trump was "not moving fast" on a standoff with Iran. He added that he would prefer a diplomatic resolution.

But not all Iranian Americans were averse to the U.S. taking a hard line against Iran.

At a gathering in front of the White House on Friday, dozens of Iranian Americans rallied for regime change in Tehran, with some calling for the overthrow of the ruling government.

Ahmad, an Iranian-American man who did not want to provide his full name because of concerns about his family's safety, said he blamed the Iranian regime for the deaths of his brothers, including one he says was tortured in state prison.

He said he did not expect that will be a war. But the U.S., he added, will "have to take firm action." </s> “Today’s rally shows that the government does not want any confrontation with the U.S.,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “Don’t be surprised, we have no interest with tensions.”

Throughout the week, Iranians on social media had asked people not to burn flags, but instead to thank American protesters for standing up to Mr. Trump’s targeted travel ban and for defending refugees, students, tourists and others affected by the executive order. Others said they had underestimated the new president at first, but now worried about new sanctions on Iran, or even military strikes.

Most of the hundreds of thousands at the rallies carried signs handed to them at the starting points of the rally. Several people carried black and white signs with text in English calling on Americans to visit Iran. </s> Iran’s parliament is set to hold a special session as soon as Sunday to discuss the anti-government protests that began Dec. 28 and continued through this week.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that Iran’s interior minister, head of intelligence and security council chief are all expected to attend. On the agenda are discussions of the root cause of the protests, as well as legal help for protesters jailed during the demonstrations.

The session was called by a group of reformist lawmakers, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In a letter, those lawmakers called for legal assistance for the detained and condemned any outside “interference” in the protests, calling out the United States in particular.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to decide next week whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran that were suspended under the 2015 international deal on Iran’s nuclear program. The waiver must be renewed every 120 days, according to U.S. law. Trump could decide not to renew, putting U.S. trade sanctions back into effect.

In Europe, supporters of the anti-government protesters in Iran have been gathering to show their support in The Hague, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, London and Paris.

At least 22 people have died in the protests, and more than 1,000 have been arrested. Hard-line cleric Ahmad Khatami told worshippers in a sermon Friday that those arrested should be treated as enemies of Islam, particularly those who have burned the flag.

“There should be no mercy for them,” he said.

Government official Mansour Gholami has told reporters that about a quarter of those arrested have been released, but he did not provide exact numbers.

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday at the urging of the United States.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley called the protests “a powerful exhibition of brave people who have become so fed up with their oppressive government that they are willing to risk their lives in protests.” She also addressed the Iranian government, saying, “the U.S. is watching what you do.”

In response, the Iranian ambassador, Gholamali Khoshroo, said it is a “discredit” to the Security Council to hold such a meeting on Iran in the face of the conflicts taking place in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East. He, along with a number of Security Council members, said the United States is meddling in Iran’s domestic affairs.

After the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, “The UNSC rebuffed the U.S.’s naked attempt to hijack its mandate. ... Another FP (foreign policy) blunder for the Trump administration.”

Still, U.S. intelligence officials warn Tehran is at a crossroads, noting the protests are the biggest outpouring of public discontent since Iranians took to the streets in 2009 following a disputed presidential election.

“The protests are symptomatic of long-standing grievances that have been left to fester,” an intelligence official told VOA on condition of anonymity. “Will it address the legitimate concerns of its people or suppress the voices of its own populace?”

“What is clear is that these concerns are not going away,” the official said.

Critics of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani say he has abandoned the poor, pointing to rising prices for key commodities like fuel, bread and eggs. </s> Angry protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in the southern city of Basra on Friday, setting a fire inside amid a wave of demonstrations that have turned deadly in the past few days, a security official and eyewitnesses said.

At least 10 protesters have died in clashes with security forces since Monday, including three who were shot dead by security forces Thursday night as protesters lobbed Molotov cocktails and set fire to a government building and offices of Shiite militias in the city.

The protests in Basra and other cities, the most serious to shake Iraq’s oil-rich southern Shiite heartland in years, have since July been calling for an end to endemic corruption, soaring joblessness and poor public services. Clashes erupted earlier this week, leaving several civilians and police dead. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into the violence, which shows no sign of abating.

The violence prompted the temporary head of Iraq’s parliament, the eldest lawmaker, to call an emergency meeting today to discuss the snowballing protests.

The protesters shouted anti-Iranian slogans outside the Iranian consulate Friday evening, including “Iran, out, out!” before they stormed it and set a fire inside. Smoke could be seen rising from the building. Protesters also burned an Iranian flag. </s> Protesters have stormed the Iranian consulate in Iraq's southern city of Basra, setting a fire inside as part of deadly demonstrations against a lack of services and jobs in which several government buildings have been ransacked and torched.

Demonstrators on Friday broke in and began destroying the offices, shouting condemnation of what many Iraqis perceive as Tehran's interference with Iraqi politics.

The consulate was reportedly empty when the crowd burst in.

Following the burning of the consulate, Iran denied reports that its citizens were asked to leave Basra.

Talking to the government-backed news agency Fars, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Bahram Ghassemi said Iranian nationals were not being told to leave Basra.

Later on Friday, Iraqi security officials announced a citywide curfew in Basra, warning that "anyone present in the street" would be arrested.

Several protesters have died, mostly in clashes with the security forces, since Monday in Basra, a city of two million people.

Residents say they have been driven to the streets by corruption and misrule that allowed infrastructure to collapse, leaving no power or safe drinking water in the heat of summer.

According to Marwan Kabalan, director of policy analysis at Doha Institute, the protests show a growing dissatisfaction with Iran's influence in Iraq.

"Those who have been running the country for the last fifteen years have actually been Iranian allies," Kabalan told Al Jazeera.

"The people are protesting against these elites that are backed by Iran and they're protesting against Iranian influence in the south of Iraq," he added.

"Iran has also cut the electricity supply recently claiming Iraq has not been able to pay for the electricity, which is another reason people have directed their anger towards Iran," Kabalan said.

Chances of imminent change are small, however, according to Kabalan.

"We need major reform in Iraq before we see any improvement, but perhaps these protests will perhaps encourage political fires to resist Iranian influence more in the country."

The storming of the consulate on Friday came hours after Iraq's most revered Shia cleric called for a political shakeup in the capital, Baghdad, and a halt to violence against the protesters.

Ayatollah Ali Sistani placed blame for the unrest with political leaders and said a new government should be formed.

"The failings of Iraqi political leaders in recent years have caused the anger of people in Basra," Sistani said.

"This reality cannot change if the next government is formed according to the same criteria adopted when forming previous governments. Pressure must be exerted for the new government to be different from its predecessors."

Parliament's interim leader meanwhile summoned legislators to an emergency session on Saturday to discuss the unrest.

Basra has been the epicentre of protests that have rocked Iraq since July, with anger fuelled by pollution of the water supply that left 30,000 people in hospital

In recent days, crowds have attacked the offices of the state-run Iraqiya TV and set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Dawa Party, the Supreme Islamic Council and the Badr Organisation, whose leaders are all vying to form Iraq's ruling coalition.

Protesters also torched the offices of a powerful Shia armed group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and those of the Hikma Movement, and stormed the house of the acting head of the provincial council.

Rights activists have accused security forces of opening fire on the demonstrators, while the government has blamed provocateurs in the crowds and say the troops were ordered not to use live rounds.

Public anger has grown at a time when politicians are struggling to form a new government after an inconclusive parliamentary election in May.

Residents of the south complain of decades of neglect in the region that produces the bulk of Iraq's oil wealth. </s> Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday his country is in a "fight" with the U.S., a day after protesters angered by Iran's tanking economy confronted police in front of parliament.

In a televised speech, Rouhani blamed the U.S. for Iran's woes and said the U.S. is trying to damage the country by creating "an economic war."

"The U.S. cannot defeat our nation, our enemies are not able to get us to their knees," he said.

Rouhani's comments came after protesters angered by Iran's tanking economy confronted police in front of parliament Monday. It was the first such confrontation since similar demonstrations rocked the country at the start of the year.

The demonstration signaled widespread unease in the wake of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers and restore sanctions on the country.

It wasn't immediately clear who led Monday's protests. Iran's semi-official news agencies, Fars, ISNA and Tasnim, described the protests at the Grand Bazaar as erupting after the Iranian rial dropped to 90,000 to the dollar on the country's black market, despite government attempts to control the currency rate.

Videos posted to social media showed protesters at the bazaar heckling shopkeepers who refused to close.

A short time later, about 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Grand Bazaar, videos shared by Iranians on social media appeared to show a crowd confronting police at parliament.

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency reported Tuesday that authorities detained many of the rioters.

Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said the "main provocateurs" who planned the protest and threatened shopkeepers to close their stores were arrested. He did not elaborate on the number of people detained.

Still, semi-official ISNA news agency reported the country's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said Tuesday that the Rouhani administration hasn't done enough to confront the economic problems.

At the end of last year, similar economic protests roiled Iran and spread to some 75 cities and towns, becoming the largest demonstrations in the country since its 2009 disputed presidential election. The protests in late December and early January saw at least 25 people killed and nearly 5,000 arrested.

Iran has announced a list of 15 demands for improving relations with the United States, including a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear accord, in response to a similar list of demands made by Washington last month.

In May, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for a wholesale change in Iran's military and regional policies, threatening the "strongest sanctions in history" if it refused. The U.S. withdrew from the landmark nuclear agreement with world powers earlier that month. </s> UNITED NATIONS — Efforts by the Trump administration to marshal a muscular international response to Iran’s crackdown on anti-government protesters appeared to backfire on Friday, as members of the United Nations Security Council instead used a special session called by the United States to lecture the American ambassador on the proper purpose of the body and to reaffirm support for the Iran nuclear agreement.

It was an afternoon of high diplomatic theater that began with a passionate denunciation of Iran’s “oppressive government” by the American ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, and ended with the Iranian ambassador delivering a lengthy history of popular revolt in the United States — from the violent demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in 1968 to the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011.

In the interim, Council members did, one by one, condemn the Iranian government’s response during more than a week of protests. As of Friday, more than 20 people had been killed and hundreds had been arrested. The authorities have blocked access to social media and have blamed foreign “enemies” for instigating the unrest, a common refrain at times of upheaval that in this case the government has provided no evidence to support.

In her remarks, Ms. Haley said that the United States would remain steadfastly behind the Iranian protesters.
Iranian Americans protest outside the State Department as tensions increase.