PITTSBURGH — Supporters of Iran’s leadership change gathered Sunday at the Cathedral of Learning to celebrate the development, drawing a sharp contrast with protesters who demonstrated in the city earlier this week.
The mood was celebratory with families who fled Iran during the Islamic Revolution saying they looked forward to returning soon to their home country, now that the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been eliminated.
Scores of young men and women, along with their elders, danced and celebrated what they called the liberation of their countrymen as American and Iranian flags billowed in the wind. Rallygoers held homemade signs reading “Thank you President Trump” and “Free Iran.” They were joined by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s shah who was deposed in 1979.
By Monday evening, a separate group of about two dozen, organized in part by the local branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, gathered at the steps of the City-County Building on Grant Street downtown to protest the military actions by the United States and Israel.
Professional signs reading “Money for People’s Needs, Not War w/Iran” and “Love the Foreigner” were scattered among the protesters.
The PSL organizer led the crowd in a chant: “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes.”
The PSL, which frequently stages social-justice protests outside the William S. Moorhead Federal Building at the other end of Grant and Liberty, also held an “emergency” rally in Schenley Park on Saturday evening.
In its call to action, PSL said, “The U.S. and Israel are carrying out an unprovoked, illegal bombing campaign on Iran. This war serves no one but a tiny elite and oil executives and is a continuation of more than two years of genocide in Palestine and US-Israeli aggressions throughout the region.”
The PSL regularly organizes protests, including demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and rallies supporting Palestinian liberation.
At Carnegie Mellon University, the school’s Iranian Student Association said they viewed the U.S. attack as a step toward peace.
Aslan Noorghasemi, a PhD student in the Design Research Collective lab, told Yasmin Rodriguez in an interview with the local ABC News affiliate that he views the situation as a rescue mission for the Iranian people, not war, calling that an oversimplification.
Noorghasemi, who has lost contact with his parents in Iran, added, “We are seeing it not as a war; we are framing it as a hostage rescue mission. All rescue missions include war, but seeing it throughout the lens of war is oversimplification of the situation.”
Noorghasemi said outsiders sometimes conflate Iranians with the Islamic regime, even though he sees them as “opposite sides of the spectrum.” He added that he’s anxious because he hasn’t been able to reach his parents, but called it a small price to pay for the bigger picture.
“I’m seeing it just as the price that we are paying. Some people pay this price with their lives,” he said.
The dueling reactions to the Iran invasion underscore that Americans’ views of the conflict are more complicated than a simple, cut-and-dried consensus.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the shah, Iran has endured decades of upheaval marked by political and cultural repression, chronic economic turmoil, and deepening isolation from much of the international community.
A fanatical, religious authoritarian regime replaced a secular monarchy. Since then, the government has repeatedly suppressed free expression and responded to peaceful domestic protests with violence to crush unrest.
The country has been in a state of persistent high inflation and economic distress while being heavily involved in regional instability through violent proxy networks that include Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza.
Three other attacks directed by the Iranian Islamics include the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans. That was followed in 1996 by the Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 Americans, and in 1998, when they bombed the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Iran has done all of this — along with the Oct. 7, 2023, slaughter of 1,200 people by their proxy Hamas, of which 46 Americans were killed — while pursuing nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump conducted a major attack with Israel that killed Khamenei, saying he gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.”
DAVID HARSANYI: THE ‘ISRAEL DRAGGED US INTO WAR’ CANARD
While social media and cable news rage with reporters, influencers, and strategists trading barbs, switching teams, and declaring new coalitions — often with plenty of self-interest mixed in — the center of gravity is usually somewhere else. Far from the feeds, most voters aren’t auditioning for clout or clicks. They’re watching, waiting, and making up their minds on a slower timeline than the people who are paid to have an opinion every hour.
The last time I checked, no one on social media decided presidential or midterm elections; voters do.
