Iranian Americans in California React to Soleimani's Death

As tensions continued to escalate between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend following the killing of Iran’s top security and intelligence commander by a U.S. military strike, worries about a draft rose among young people and anti-war protesters demonstrated in the streets in cities across the country.

That includes in San Francisco, where protesters marched down Market Street, and in San Jose, where The Mercury News reported that hundreds of Bay Area residents — a mix of college students, Chicano Brown Berets and other activists — gathered in front of City Hall on Saturday.

The Los Angeles Times reported that at least 200 people held signs bearing messages like “No War or sanctions on Iran …” and chanted “No More War,” as they marched through downtown.

As my colleague Jose Del Real reported, Southern California is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran. And in the heart of the enclave known as Tehrangeles, near UCLA, feelings were mixed.

On Thursday, the National Iranian American Council issued a statement condemning the Trump administration’s move.

“The last thing the world needs is yet another disastrous American military adventure in the Middle East,” said Jamal Abdi, the organization’s president. The killing of the commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, was “a profoundly reckless move,” Abdi said.

But many Californians who emigrated from Iran said they were not mourning Soleimani.

“A world without Soleimani is a better world for everyone,” Roozbeh Farahanipour, 48, told Del Real. “Personally, I’m happy he got assassinated.”

Farahanipour grew up in a chaotic Tehran and was tortured under interrogation for his anti-government activism in his 20s. He eventually settled in the U.S., where he was given political asylum.

And on Sunday, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a couple dozen Iranian Americans rallied in the city’s Union Square to celebrate the death of a man they said was responsible for violence and decades of oppression.

Others said they were wary of war and frustrated with U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

“To hell with Soleimani, I don’t care about him at all, and I don’t care about Trump either,” Farsheed Nooryani, 55, a real estate agent in the area, told Del Real. “But this will escalate the tensions in the region.”

Dozens of Iranians and Iranian Americans were held for hours at the border waiting to cross into Washington state from Canada, raising concerns about illegal detentions.

The situation has reshuffled already fraught political dynamics around impeachment. My colleagues reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hasn’t made up her mind on how to proceed.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .