“Today’s military strikes on Iran, carried out by the United States and Israel, mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change,” wrote New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in an official statement.
Mamdani’s position is troubling, as he appears to be siding with the Iranian regime while Iranians in New York City are marching in the streets praising President Trump for eliminating Ayatollah Khamenei.
The mayor is also factually incorrect when he calls it an “illegal war.” The United States has not declared war, and the president’s actions were not illegal. The strikes were carried out under presidential war powers.
Former New York City Mayor Eric Adams criticized his successor for labeling the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes “illegal” while failing to acknowledge the Iranian regime’s long history of terrorism and repression.
“Let me be very clear. When the mayor of the largest city in America characterizes defensive action against the Iranian regime as ‘illegal’ without acknowledging decades of terror sponsorship, nuclear escalation, and human rights abuses, that is not leadership — that is dangerous oversimplification,” Adams said Sunday in a statement to The Post.
Adams argued that Iran has spent decades funding and arming terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, backing militia attacks on U.S. forces, advancing nuclear and long-range missile programs, and violently suppressing peaceful protesters at home.
Mamdani has no record of publicly condemning the Iranian regime for decades of murder, torture of civilians, human-rights abuses, and restrictions on religious freedom. Even during protests in which thousands were reportedly killed, he did not issue an official condemnation.
His only apparent criticism came on January 13, when he stated at a press conference, “I absolutely do not support the way the Iranian government has responded to [the protests],” adding that all governments must “respect the right of people to express their political opinions safely.” That statement falls short of a direct condemnation.
In the weeks leading up to the U.S. strikes, Iran’s internal crackdown over the previous three months resulted in heavy casualties, with estimates varying widely due to a near-total internet blackout. The Iranian government, through the Martyrs Foundation, acknowledged 3,117 deaths, categorizing many as “terrorists” or security personnel rather than peaceful protesters. The Human Rights Activists News Agency confirmed 7,007 deaths as of late February 2026 and reported more than 11,000 additional cases under investigation.
International observers cited higher figures. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Iran stated the civilian death toll likely surpassed 20,000, citing the systematic use of heavy weaponry against unarmed crowds. Reports from The Guardian and Time magazine, based on interviews with doctors and morgue staff, suggested the total could exceed 30,000. Iran International cited leaked intelligence documents estimating as many as 36,500 deaths, describing the “January Massacres” as the deadliest two-day crackdown on protesters in modern history.
Human Rights Watch reported that Iran’s human rights situation deteriorated sharply in 2025 and early 2026, marked by a surge in executions during the nationwide crackdown on protests. According to its World Report 2026, Iranian authorities carried out more than 2,000 executions in 2025, the highest number since the late 1980s, with over half related to drug offenses. The report states many followed gross fair-trial violations and disproportionately targeted women and ethnic and religious minorities, including members of the Sunni minority.
In addition to killing Ayatollah Khamenei, the U.S. strikes targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s primary instrument of repression and foreign proxy warfare. President Trump designated the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on April 8, 2019, the first time in U.S. history that part of another nation’s government received that designation. The Obama administration declined to do so, and although the Biden administration considered lifting the designation during nuclear negotiations, it ultimately left it in place.
Established in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution, the IRGC answers directly to the Supreme Leader and operates as a parallel armed force with its own ground, naval, air, intelligence, and missile units. Its Quds Force oversees foreign operations and proxy warfare, supervises ballistic missile development, and funds, trains, arms, and directs allied militant groups.
Domestically, the IRGC and its Basij militia have crushed dissent. During the 2009 Green Movement protests, security forces killed hundreds. In November 2019, an estimated 1,500 protesters were killed within days. After the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, more than 500 were killed and over 19,000 arrested. Repression has included live ammunition against unarmed civilians, torture, forced disappearances, executions, sexual violence against detainees, targeting of ethnic minorities, and internet shutdowns.
Abroad, the IRGC has built and sustained a network of proxy forces. It helped create Hezbollah in 1982 and continues to fund and arm it. Hezbollah was responsible for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines, the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing, and decades of rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. The IRGC also supports Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, including assistance tied to the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. In Yemen, it has trained and armed the Houthis, supplying ballistic missiles and drone technology used against Saudi infrastructure, Red Sea shipping, U.S. naval vessels, and Israeli territory.
In Iraq, the IRGC created and directs Shi’a militias that used explosively formed penetrators against U.S. troops, suppressed Iraqi protest movements, attacked U.S. bases in 2023 and 2024, and targeted political opponents. In Syria, it deployed thousands of fighters to support Bashar al-Assad and backed siege campaigns against civilian areas.
The Quds Force has also been linked to global assassination and bombing plots, including the 1994 AMIA bombing in Argentina, the 2012 Burgas bus bombing in Bulgaria, and a 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC. Iran has supplied advanced missiles and drone technology to its proxies and provided Russia with Shahed drones used against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
Economically, the IRGC controls a network of front companies and oversees a significant portion of Iran’s economy, using that empire to fund operations and evade sanctions. Its record of repression and foreign terrorism spans decades and has been documented by U.S. agencies, United Nations investigators, European courts, and human rights organizations. The 2019 terrorist designation was based on that record.
Given the documented history of oppression, terrorism, torture, and murder carried out by both Ayatollah Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, it is unreasonable that Zohran Mamdani refused to condemn them and instead condemned the U.S. strikes that have freed the people of Iran from living under a repressive regime.
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