Iranian-Americans rally at White House

Protesters demand U.S. take action over Iran's disputed election

	Mansoureh Mojahedpoor holds a photo of her son, Mojtaba Mojahedpoor, who she says was a Tehran University student killed by the current Iranian regime in 1982. She was part of a demonstration against the Iranian government in front of the U.S. Capitol on Saturday.
Gerald Herbert / AP

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updated 7:05 p.m. ET July 11, 2009

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of protesters, many of them Iranian-Americans, marched from Capitol Hill to the White House on Saturday, most holding Iranian flags and chanting demands for the U.S. to take more action after Iran's disputed election.

After marching through several blocks of downtown Washington, more than 200 people rallied in front of the White House. They shouted demands for President Barack Obama and leaders of other countries to "reject the sham elections, impose complete sanctions."

They also shouted "death to Ahmadinejad," referring to the Iranian president whose disputed June 12 re-election prompted days of street protests in Iran. Some carried pictures of Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman who bled to death in a Tehran street. She became a symbol of the postelection protest movement after videos of her death by gunfire were posted online.

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Iranian-American organizations, such as the National Coalition of Pro-Democracy Advocates, and human rights groups organized the march and the rally in Lafayette Square across from the White House. Demonstrators said they wanted to show their solidarity with the protesters in Iran. They also wanted world leaders to suspend all political and diplomatic ties with Iran and demanded that the Iranian regime hold an election supervised by the United Nations.

Reza Kamandar, who took part in the rally, said his brother was shot by a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard earlier this week and died. The 43-year-old math teacher said he traveled from Houston to Washington "to support my people."

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