Massive crowd protesting Iranian regime in Washington as fragile ceasefire holds
Fox News, May 16, 2026
Iranian opposition supporters flooded the streets near Capitol Hill on Saturday as a “Free Iran” march got underway in Washington, D.C., with demonstrators waving green, white and red Iranian flags and calling for regime change in Tehran.
Large crowds marched behind a massive yellow banner reading, “IRAN: Support Maryam Rajavi’s Provisional Government for a Democratic Republic Toward Peace and Freedom,” as supporters moved through downtown streets near the U.S. Capitol and World War I Memorial.
Many demonstrators wore yellow hats and shirts while carrying flags associated with the National Council of Resistance of Iran and other Iranian opposition groups. Signs in the crowd read “Stop Executions in Iran” and “No Shah No Mullahs,” reflecting opposition both to Iran’s current Islamic regime and to a return of the monarchy.
The march came as Iranian American activists and opposition supporters gathered in the nation’s capital to urge U.S. policymakers and world leaders to condemn political executions and crackdowns inside Iran.
Iranian regime is ‘desperate’ and must be put ‘to rest,’ retired US general says
Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark, a former NATO commander, told the crowd gathered Saturday for the Free Iran Rally in Washington, D.C., that the Iranian regime is “crumbling under fear, and you and the MEK must put it to rest.”
“Iran is a great nation, it’s a great people, a historic civilization held captive by a small band of zealots, who are ruthless, cruel, and determined to loot the oil wealth of Iran for their own purposes,” Clark said.
“The freedoms we take for granted in the United States, they are not there in Iran,” he added. “Instead, they are suffering under a regime that believes in mass incarceration, shooting people in the streets, arrests, torture, hanging, killing some of the best young people in the country.”
“It is a desperate regime, it is a regime that is crumbling under fear, and you and the MEK must put it to rest,” Clark said, referencing the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iranian exile organization.
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Iran more than doubled executions in 2025 as global use of the death penalty hit 44-year high, report says
CBS News, May 18 2026
The use of the death penalty skyrocketed last year, with documented executions reaching a worldwide high not seen since 1981, a new report found. A majority of the increase came from Iran, where the annual execution rate doubled, according to the report by human rights organization Amnesty International.
At least 2,707 people were executed globally in 2025, the report said, although it acknowledged the overall count was likely much higher. Amnesty International said thousands of additional executions are believed to have taken place in China, but any concrete information about them could not be verified because of the country’s secrecy surrounding its death penalty practices.
Excluding China, the overall number of documented executions still marked a 78% increase from the global tally that Amnesty International reported for 2024. Iran was responsible for at least 2,159 executions, the report said, more than double the number from the previous year.
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Protesters March On Washington, D.C. To Demand Democracy For Iran Amid Tensions In Middle East
On Saturday, May 16, thousands of Iranian-Americans and human rights advocates marched across Washington, D.C. to demand an end to the horrific execution surge in Iran and endorse the NCRI’s democratic alternative.
The rally featured a powerful keynote address by Maryam Rajavi, outlining a clear vision for a free, secular, and democratic Iranian republic.
Distinguished guest speakers—including Gen. Wesley Clark, Amb. Carla Sands, and Patrick Kennedy—also delivered impactful speeches championing the Iranian people’s struggle for liberation. The message from the streets of the capital was clear: the future of Iran belongs to its people!
Maryam Rajavi Reveals Her Blueprint for Post-Regime Iran: “We don’t want power”
In this interview with Washington Times, Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, lays out why she believes Iran’s regime is weaker than it appears and why organized resistance inside the country could shape what comes next. She discusses executions, women’s leadership, the NCRI’s provisional government plan, and the opposition’s proposed path toward free elections and a non-nuclear democratic Iran. Could Iran’s next major uprising finally change the country’s future?
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