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More than 2,000 people gathered outside the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday to protest Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit, with the demonstrators calling for a regime change.
The demonstrators yelled, “Free Iran,” as they condemned Pezeshkian’s appearance at the UN General Assembly and called for his administration to be ousted and replaced with a democratic republic.
“We don’t believe people who rule an authoritarian regime should be invited to speak in the United Nations,” Neda, 24, of Stockholm, told The Post.
The protest, which was organized by the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC), was also aimed at condemning the surge in executions that have taken place under Pezeshkian’s tenure.
So far in 2025, Iran has executed at least 1,000 people, according to Iran Human Rights, an NGO group based in Norway.
Shirin Nariman, 61, of Virginia, said it was outrageous for someone who has overseen such high levels of executions to be allowed to speak before the UN.
“Pezeshkian, as far as I’m concerned, is a murderer,” said Nariman, who fled Iran in the 1980s.
“I think time has arrived for the international community to kick out all Iranians diplomats and ambassadors out of the countries and recognize the opposition and an opposition leader who is consistent,” she added.
Peymaneh Shafie, 49, of Berkeley, Calif., echoed the outrage, blasting Pezeshkian as one of the key people responsible for the chaos in the Middle East.
“He’s killing Iranian people. He’s not our representative,” Shafie said. “This regime is not going to be reformed. It’s not going to change.
“The only way to have peace in the Middle East and restore democracy in Iran is by regime change,” she added.
Pezeshkian was at the UN to try and convince the West that Iran has no intention to build nuclear weapons, calling on the assembly to halt the international sanctions set to snap into place on Saturday.
“I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb. We do not seek nuclear weapons,” Pezeshkian told the general assembly.
