Iran International
An Iranian-American student who pressed Michigan Democratic US Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to state his position on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says he and his family have faced threats and harassment after a video of the exchange went viral.
At a University of Michigan town hall, Iman Dashti said his cousin had been pursued through the streets over her hijab and his uncle sentenced to death and given 50 lashes under the Islamic Republic, before asking whether El-Sayed stood “unequivocally against the IRGC.”
El-Sayed responded that he would “always stand with movements for freedom and democracy” and later told Dashti, “I want freedom and democracy for the people of Iran, no question,” while stressing that political change should come from Iranians themselves rather than through US-led regime change.
He did not directly answer Dashti’s question about whether he stood unequivocally against the IRGC.
Dashti told Iran International he shares El-Sayed’s opposition to US-imposed regime change, but said that was never the question he was asking.
“I never asked about regime change. I never asked about his stance on the war,” Dashti said. “I asked him about the people.”
“I wanted to hear from him. I wanted to hear that he stood with us, I really did want to,” he said. “If Abdul were to win, at least we’d have an advocate for the Persian people, for the American people in the US Senate.”
El-Sayed’s campaign has defended his response.
“As he noted in his response, Abdul will always stand with movements for freedom and democracy and he condemns government anti-free speech violence,” campaign spokesperson Roxie Richner told Fox News.
The campaign also reiterated El-Sayed’s opposition to US-funded regime-change wars.
Iran International separately contacted El-Sayed’s campaign seeking an interview or written response about the exchange and his position on the IRGC but did not receive a response before publication.
Threats after the exchange
Dashti said the atmosphere inside the town hall became tense, with audience members applauding when El-Sayed rejected US-led regime change, a position Dashti said he agreed with.
“The tension was very high in that room,” he said. “You could cut it with a knife.”
Since the exchange spread online, Dashti says he has received threats and that his friends and family have been targeted.
“Since that day, people have threatened me, doxxed my friends, even harassed my family,” he said in a video posted after the town hall.
Dashti told Iran International the past several days had been anxious but said the hostile reaction had also been accompanied by considerable support.
“For every negative comment I’ve gotten, for every negative sort of threat, I’ve gotten a lot of beautiful positive messages,” he said.
Scrutiny of Dashti’s politics
The attention has also brought scrutiny of Dashti’s own politics. He describes himself as a “proud Christian conservative,” belongs to the College Republicans and has previously met Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee running against El-Sayed in November.
Dashti said he does not work for Rogers and was not sent to the town hall on behalf of his campaign.
“Am I a Zionist plant? Do I work for the Rogers campaign?” he said in his follow-up video, recounting accusations circulating online. “I don’t work for anyone. I’m just a Persian student and my family was hunted in the streets of Iran.”
The son of Iranian immigrants, Dashti said he sees speaking about repression in Iran as a way of advocating for people who cannot freely do so themselves.
“The least I can do is give a voice to the people who literally don’t have a voice,” he said. “I love my people, my heritage. It’s a beautiful, beautiful culture.”
Washington designated the IRGC a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2019. The force is a central part of the Islamic Republic’s security apparatus and has been involved in suppressing anti-government protests.
Dashti said the criticism has not deterred him from continuing to raise the issue during the remaining weeks of the Senate campaign.
“I’m going to keep going, whether that means showing up at future events, mobilizing friends,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi received US feedback on Iran’s seven-day proposal during talks with Qatari mediators in Doha on Tuesday night, Reuters reported, citing an official briefed on the talks.
The main disagreement concerns the sequencing of the plan rather than its elements, the official said. The proposal outlines a seven-day process to build trust and return to an enhanced version of a memorandum of understanding reached by Iran and the United States in June.
Araghchi presented the US proposal at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting and briefed ministers on his trip to New York, including Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, government spokesperson said.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said Iran would eventually “give up,” but suggested that point had not yet been reached.
Tanker struck in Strait of Hormuz
The diplomatic exchanges came with shipping risks persisting in the waterway at the center of the negotiations.
A tanker heading into the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unknown projectile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said, citing a verified source. Authorities were investigating the strike.
Separately, the Revolutionary Guards described near-daily confrontations with vessels in the strait. Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebi said Iranian forces were targeting ships every 24 hours but had received no US response for some time.
The disruption has also affected neighboring Iraq. Parliament speaker Haibat al-Halbousi said Iran had given Iraqi tankers no exemption from restrictions on navigation through Hormuz.
Iran expands military and civilian preparations
Beyond the strait, Iranian officials described efforts to strengthen the country’s military capabilities and prepare civilian infrastructure for further conflict.
Iran is rapidly expanding its missile, drone and air defense capabilities, deputy Revolutionary Guards commander Mostafa Izadi said.
“We are present in the Strait of Hormuz with strength. We are rapidly expanding our missile, drone and air defense capabilities,” Izadi said.
Iran will also hold drills covering schools, hospitals, banks, mobile phone operators, airports, ports, bridges, roads and aviation networks to prepare civilian infrastructure for wartime threats, Passive Defense Organization chief Gholamreza Jalali said.
Jalali said Iran had prepared for possible attacks on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities before the war and conducted drills for such scenarios.
Two January protesters executed
Away from the military confrontation and negotiations, Iran carried out two more executions stemming from the January protests.
Ali Hemmati and Majid Nikandish were executed over demonstrations in Mashhad, with the judiciary accusing them of involvement in the deaths of four security personnel.
The judiciary said the two participated in protests in the city’s Tabarsi district on January 8 and accused them of attacking security personnel, setting buildings on fire and damaging public property.
Sources previously told Iran International that Nikandish was tortured and forced to confess after his arrest and transfer to Vakilabad Prison.
Wednesday thus brought movement in indirect diplomacy with Washington without an end to confrontations in Hormuz, while Iranian authorities prepared for further conflict and continued executions stemming from January’s protests.
The letter, published by Iranian media on Tuesday in English and Persian, presents the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a force for the people, portrays Iran as victorious and the United States as a power in decline, and returns repeatedly to a single instruction: that Americans turn against the politicians they elected.
The Guards and their Basij volunteer force led the suppression of nationwide protests in January, in which security forces killed tens of thousands of people in two days. A UN fact-finding mission said this month that the crackdown involved crimes against humanity.
Signs of 'decline'
"Tyranny, an excessive tendency to behave violently and murderously, relying on and promoting falsehoods, giving precedence to the vulgar elements of society over the wiser elements in occupying positions of power, and an inordinate preoccupation with inessential matters at the expense of society's essential affairs" are the signs of a state in decline, the letter says.
"The United States government today exemplifies all of these flaws."
'Not a single verifiable instance'
The United States designates the Guards as a foreign terrorist organization. The letter rejects the label.
"There is not a single verifiable instance where the IRGC has committed an act of violence against civilians," it says. "In fact, it would not be an overstatement to assert that the Guards are the world's most effective organization in combating terrorism."
Amnesty International said this month that Iranian authorities carried out a systematic campaign of killings, torture and sexual violence to crush the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022. It named 87 officials, including senior Guards and police commanders, whom it said should be investigated for crimes against humanity, and documented 377 protest-related deaths, 56 of them children.
The UN fact-finding mission's report on the January 2026 crackdown cited unlawful killings, torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and said the scale of the violence was a sharp escalation from earlier repression.
The Guards' Quds Force arms and funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. Since the war began in February, Guards naval forces have attacked commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
'Take back control'
The letter tells Americans they are responsible for their government.
"You are the ones who empower, with your votes, the government and allow it to do what it does," it says. "Although American politicians often win your votes through deception and false promises, as Trump did, you can change the makeup of the government."
"The United States of America is a great nation," it adds. "To allow vulgar and immoral individuals to continue steering your politics and policies will only further humiliate and undermine the US. Take back control."
In Iran, candidates for president and parliament are vetted by the Guardian Council, an unelected body, before they can stand. The supreme leader is not elected by voters. Official turnout in the 2024 presidential election was about 40 percent.
The letter also explains the slogan "Death to America." "The true meaning of 'Death to America' is 'Death to the crimes perpetrated by the American elite,'" it says. "It is, in a word, not an expression of ill will toward the American people."
The slogan is chanted at state-organized rallies and Friday prayers across Iran and appears on murals maintained by the state in central Tehran, including on the walls of the former US embassy.
'The dam will break'
The letter attacks Donald Trump and tells Americans their economy is failing.
"The US economy is on the precipice of collapse, and yet he keeps on telling Americans that the economy is booming and the prices will soon start coming down," it says. "This is, perhaps, his biggest lie. Soon, the dam will break, and the economy will implode, causing, unfortunately, great pain for Americans for many many years."
"The US economy will be hit by a massive economic earthquake that will affect the lives of all Americans," it adds. "You, the American people, have the power to forestall this grim fate."
On the day the letter circulated, the dollar traded above 2.5 million rials on Iran's open market. Iran's minimum monthly wage of 166 million rials is worth about $66 at that rate.
'We can live together'
The letter closes by asking Americans to press Washington to distance itself from Israel.
"We can live together in peaceful coexistence," it says. "Remove from power the evil, deceitful, and violent politicians who are responsible for America's current state. Entrust your affairs to the wise, not the wily. Make sure your politicians understand that the world has changed."
