The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before. Unarmed peaceful people – who love their country – are taking to the streets in pursuit of their legitimate aspirations for a better future, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz.
“Well, this is our message: President Donald J. Trump and the United States of America stands by the brave people of Iran. Period.”
The Iranian regime is solely responsible for the economic misery of the Iranian people and the repression of their freedom, and they will be held accountable, said Ambassador Waltz.
The estimates of the numbers of protesters killed by the regime so far range from the thousands to the tens of thousands, although visibility into the totality of the violence has been obscured deliberately by the regime’s nationwide internet blackout.
Since 1979, the Iranian regime has posed a threat to peace and security. In the name of a religious ideology, the regime calls for death to America and the annihilation of Israel. Even as its own citizens cannot afford the very basics: food, drinking water, and medicine. It spends billions to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to threaten its neighbors and the world in its support of terrorism.
From its inception, the Iranian regime has been the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, bringing uncountable death and suffering to innocents from Beirut all the way to Buenos Aires, while its rulers have become rich off of oppression and misery meted upon the Iranian people.
The Iranian regime has also been a serial human rights abuser from its very first day in power, said Ambassador Waltz.
“Young women like Mahsa Amini have been murdered for daring to uncover their hair in public while religious minorities have been subjected to the most severe persecution. These abuses have been documented. . .by the United Nations, have been documented by the Secretary-General’s own regular reports on the situation of human rights in Iran, the most recent of which was released just last year in 2025.”
Moreover, the Iranian regime has plotted assassination attempts against President Trump and other senior U.S. government officials.
Iran has destabilized the Middle East for decades. It has supported and enabled Hamas’ brutality, its hostage taking, and its heinous October 7 attack on Israel. It has funded Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iranian-aligned militia groups in Iraq that have attacked the United States in the region repeatedly. The regime also backed the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
“We all have a responsibility to support the Iranian people and to put an end to the regime’s neglect and oppression of the Iranian nation,” stated Ambassador Waltz.
“President Trump is a man of action. Not endless talk like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter – and no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.”
The People of Iran are Fighting for Freedom
The UN Security Council meets on the situation in Iran, January 15, 2026.
The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before. Unarmed peaceful people – who love their country – are taking to the streets in pursuit of their legitimate aspirations for a better future, said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz.