As U.S. politicians and protesters roundly condemned the nation’s major attack on Iran, New Yorkers of Iranian-descent expressed a mix of joy and trepidation Sunday after Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in the American and Israeli forces’ military strikes.
Milad Hour, 40, said he traveled from his home in Connecticut to Ravagh Persian Grill on Madison Ave. in Flatiron, where Iranian flags bedecked the premises, “for celebrating,” noting: “They killed Khamenei. So we are so happy about that.”
“It is kind of complicated,” acknowledged Hour, who teaches marketing at Fairfield University, has lived in the U.S. for about seven years and participated in protests in his native Iran. “We are asking the U.S. or Israel to attack Iran while we are Iranians. Because the thing is… we don’t consider them … the government,” he explained, adding: “They are extremists.”
Hour said he was perplexed by his liberal friends expressing their condolences.
“What I don’t understand is that I’m receiving a lot of messages,” he said. “I mean, I hear a lot of … other people who are liberal, from (a) liberal party, but what they are saying is that we are so sorry for this problem that you currently are in, this situation that (the) US is attacking Iran.
“The thing is… we are happy about it because we asked for help,” Hour said.
U.S. politicians have nearly unanimously denounced the military action, which Mayor Mamdani, in a post on X, called a “catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression.”
About 400 protesters marched from Times Square to Columbus Circle on Saturday in demonstration of their opposition to the attacks.
“We are celebrating,” said Yosef Baheri, 38. Baheri, a PhD student in computer science at Stony Brook, who is an Iranian Jew and came to the U.S. four years ago.
Baheri was thrown in prison for three days for protesting the Iranian regime in 2009, during which time government agents broke two of his fingers, he said.
“I believe that this is for peace and benefit for all American, all Jews, all over the world,” Baheri said.
“Thank you, America. God bless America. God bless Donald J. Trump,” he exclaimed.
Khamenei, 87, who had been in power for more than three decades, was viewed by critics as a repressive authoritarian responsible for the mass murder of thousands of protesters and other human rights abuses.
Some at the restaurant had a more measured response.
Sepehr Zunoubi, 17, a high school senior who was born in the U.S. but whose parents are from Tehran, wandered into the restaurant after visiting New York University.
Zunoubi said he wanted the regime to end, but thinks the outside military action could undermine Iranian autonomy, and pave the way for U.S. and Israeli control of the country.
“Right now, it’s really unclear to give a solid answer. But I’m not too confident in this move just quite yet,” Zunoubi said. “I would want to see it play out and see how we’re going to, you know, strive to get a democracy there. I think that’s what we want the most.”
“I can’t definitively say that the Persians inside of Iran feel the same way that I feel right now, so I can’t really speak for them,” Zunoubi said. “But I can speak for my own views. I think fundamentally, it’s a right step in the correct direction, but I just have to see it being executed.”
“Hopefully the country can get its democracy back that we used to have,” he said.
