Brooklyn’s elected officials have largely condemned U.S. strikes in Iran after President Donald Trump launched a military campaign against the country without congressional approval.
The U.S. and Israel began widespread missile strikes across the country on Feb. 28, the start of a campaign the president has since said will likely last weeks or months. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a number of other top Iranian leaders were killed in the first days of the conflict.
So far, nearly 800 Iranians have been killed, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, including more than 100 people at a girls’ school. Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, have launched retaliatory strikes on Israel and gulf countries with U.S. military bases, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar. Six U.S. troops have been killed by those strikes.
Trump has said the U.S. is seeking to eliminate Iran’s navy and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But several Brooklyn congress members said the president failed to obtain congressional approval for the strikes and has not provided clear justification for the “act of war.”
“Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support of terrorism and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a statement. “However, absent exigent circumstances, the Trump administration must seek authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war.”
Jeffries said the Trump administration “must explain itself to the American people and Congress immediately” and provide both an “ironclad justification” for the strikes and a plan to avoid “another costly, prolonged military quagmire in the Middle East.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a March 2 speech that while he “will not shed a tear for Ali Khamenei,” Trump’s strikes did not fit with the wants and needs of the American public.
“[The American people] don’t want a war that leads to lost American lives and that costs billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. They don’t want a war that raises the price of gas at the pump,” he said. “Make no mistake about it, this is a war of choice, not necessity. And regardless of whether you are a Democrat or Republican or an independent — or even if you don’t pay attention to politics — there is one thing almost everyone agrees on: we are sick and tired of endless wars in the Middle East. And there is real danger that is the road we are on right now.”
Both Schumer and Jeffries said they will back a pair of “war powers” resolutions that would remove U.S. forces from the conflict since it had not been approved by Congress. Brooklyn congress members Yvette Clarke, Dan Goldman and Nydia Velázquez, along with U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, have signaled that they will vote in favor of the resolution.
“Our resolution affirms what the Constitution already says: the President cannot send U.S. forces to fight a war in Iran without Congressional approval,” Schumer said. “As soon as our resolution comes to the floor, Senators need to pick a side: stand with Americans who don’t want war or stand with Donald Trump as he singlehandedly starts another war.”
One Brooklyn rep — U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, New York City’s only Republican congress member — has praised Trump’s strikes.
“The United States has taken decisive and courageous action against Iran to defend our citizens, interests, and partners after the leading state sponsor of terrorism would not negotiate in good faith or commit to diplomacy over nuclear capabilities,” she said in a Feb. 28 statement. ” … The United States, the Middle East and the world will be a safer and more peaceful place when the oppressive and murderous Iranian regime is eliminated. May God bless our troops as they conduct this courageous and noble mission.”
Mamdani, NYPD take ‘proactive steps’ to protect New Yorkers
Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who days earlier had a friendly meeting with Trump in Washington D.C. — immediately condemned the action.
The mayor affirmed his solidarity with Iranian-Americans in New York City and wrote in a post on X that the attack marks “a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression.
“Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace,” Mamdani wrote.
He said City Hall and the New York Police Department had begun taking “proactive steps” to protect New Yorkers’ safety following the attacks, “including increasing coordination across agencies and enhancing patrols of sensitive locations out of an abundance of caution.”
“Additionally, I want to speak directly to Iranian New Yorkers: you are part of the fabric of this city — you are our neighbors, small business owners, students, artists, workers, and community leaders. You will be safe here,” Mamdani wrote.
Strikes set off celebrations, protests
The strikes, and Khamenei’s death, set off protests and celebratory rallies across New York City over the weekend, with thousands of New Yorkers taking to the streets to voice their opposition to the attacks and attempted regime change. Several opposition groups to the Islamic Republic took to the streets on Sunday to celebrate Khamenei’s killing.
“Everyone is terrified for their family. Everyone I’ve spoken to does not support the Iranian government, and they want a better future for their family, they want freedom and democracy and human rights and a real economic situation where people can afford to live,” said Etan Mabourakh, national organizing manager for the National Iranian-American Council. “But they don’t have faith that U.S. bombs and this Israeli-led attack will deliver that.”
On Sunday, several groups celebrated Khamenei’s death and supported the U.S.-Israeli attempt at regime change in the country. A coalition of pro-Israel groups marched from the United Nations headquarters in Midtown East to Times Square on Sunday in celebration “with the brave people of Iran.”
Demonstrators waved American and Iranian flags, expressed support for Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
“We are here to celebrate Khamenei’s death and be Iranian people’s voice … we are here to celebrate, we are ready for regime change, long live King Reza Pahlavi,” Soudabeh Hasseri, an attendee at the demonstration, said.
Pahlavi, the oldest son of Iran’s last shah and a longtime political activist, is currently living in exile in the U.S. He is supportive of Trump and argues that he is the best leader to return and lead Iran’s new regime.
Attendees condemned the Iranian regime’s reported human rights abuses — according to a 2024 report from Amnesty International, Iranian women, girls, LGBTQ people, and religious and ethnic minorities experience “systemic discrimination and violence” in the country. Iranians and human rights watchdogs have raised alarm in recent years over the Iranian government’s “systemic” slaughter of thousands of protesters and increasingly oppressive treatment of the Iranian people.
“The moment that all Iranians were waiting for happened last night,” one attendee said, thanking Trump for the United States’ intervention.
Hundreds of New Yorkers marched through Midtown Manhattan on Saturday to protest the attacks, chanting for the end of the U.S.’s intervention in the region and for “hands off Iran.” The group was largely made up of anti-war, socialist, and pro-Palestinian groups organized by the People’s Forum and the ANSWER Coalition.
A version of this story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site amNewYork.
