Arizona State University students protest new war in Iran

TEMPE – Arizona residents and officials expressed a wide variety of reactions to Operation Epic Fury, the joint American-Israeli attacks in Iran. They ranged from relief at the toppling of a theocratic regime to fears of rising costs here in the Valley. 

American and Israeli forces coordinated airstrikes in Iran on Feb. 28. The Trump administration said the conflict’s aim is to destroy Iran’s missile and military capabilities, prevent Iranian nuclear capabilities and topple the regime. The conflict prompted a number of hastily organized protests over the weekend outside the statehouse and in Scottsdale. They included anti-war demonstrators as well as others who welcomed the opportunity for a new leadership in Tehran.

Those protests continued on Monday. What was described by organizers as an “emergency protest” drew a mix of support, criticism and concern about the future of Iran – and Arizona. The Student Worker Organization, Party for Socialism and Liberation and Students for Justice in Palestine organized the protest. They called for “no war in Iran and to stop the bombings.”

The protesters stood on Hayden Lawn on Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. They carried signs reading “NO NEW US WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST” and “STOP THE WAR ON IRAN,” while others carried bullhorns and read rhyming chants. Some passing students and faculty stopped to listen.

Mike Imbis, a freshman studying philosophy, stopped to talk about the larger impacts of the new conflict. 

“Honestly, I think it’s just another war that we’re starting just on behalf of Israel,” Imbis said. “I don’t think it’s really much to do with the U.S.”

He was one of a number of people across the state worried about how the conflict could affect the price of gas and what it might mean for the stock market and the economy at home. 

“I think oil prices are definitely gonna go up a lot,” he said. “The stock market’s definitely gonna go down a lot,” Imbis said. “I think, if anything, it’ll end up like another Afghanistan or Iraq, where we’re there for a long period of time and install a puppet government.”

Counterprotesters nearby held American, Israeli and Lion and Sun flags. Iran used the Lion and Sun flag before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. 

Amir Danial Azimi, a board member of the Iranian Students and Scholars Association at ASU, stood nearby and waved a pole with both the American and Lion and Sun flags. He also protested against the Iranian government in January 2026.

“Iran currently is a terrorist government. So it has killed over 40,000 of its own people,” Azimi said. “That’s why there are so many Iranians here, because we escaped that country, that terrorist regime.”

Azimi didn’t expect what was unfolding in Iran to happen in his lifetime. 

“Iran has been bullying the Middle East and essentially the entire world for 47 years.” Azimi explained. “It’s finally time that the United States is putting its foot down and saying, ‘No, we will not have a terrorist regime bully other countries.’”

Idan Gubeskys, a senior studying finance, said the operations to be beneficial for the people of Iran. 

“Hopefully the positive impact of it would be that the Iranian nation is finally free from this oppressive regime that kills women for not covering their hair, kills homosexuals,” Gubeskys said. “Basically imposes the radical version of theocracy upon the populace.”

Gubeskys moved to the United States from Israel 10 years ago. He worries about his grandparents, who still live there. They move to a bomb shelter several times a day, he said. 

Others said the strikes are a distraction, driving attention away from other issues. Deshayne Curley, a sophomore studying cyber security, thinks the conflict is designed to distract from the release of the Epstein files. 

“It felt like we were very close to class consciousness. And now all of a sudden, you know, this happens again, and everyone is divided again,” Curley said. “We’re back to square one.”

Arizona representatives have split in their reaction to the strikes.  

Republican Rep. Abraham Hamadeh said “America First does not mean American Alone” in a statement.

“We must stand shoulder to shoulder with our allies against the suicidal regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement continued. 

Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a daughter of Iranian migrants who fled the Islamic Republic, said in a statement that she has “no sympathy for regime officials or the military apparatus,” and calls the Islamic Republic “a brutal, corrupt regime that has murdered and imprisoned its own people for decades.”

Ansari said she doesn’t agree with how the strikes were carried out and believes  it’s unconstitutional. 

“I am deeply concerned by President Trump’s decision to launch an illegal, dangerous war without Congressional authorization,” Ansari said in a statement.

Sen. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, also condemned the airstrikes. Both senators are combat veterans.  Kelly flew combat missions during Desert Storm, and Gallego served as an infantryman in the Iraq War. 

Both senators released statements expressing dismay with Trump’s actions for contradicting his promise for no new wars. 

The dispute was not just between rival politicians. There was a feud playing out from beyond the grave at Turning Point USA, headquartered in Phoenix. 

Three months before he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk posted a poll on X with nearly 90% of respondents opposed to U.S. involvement in Israel’s war with Iran. A week before, he posted a comment on Nikki Haley’s X account that was adamantly against U.S. military actions in Iran. 

“Regime change in Iran would be a catastrophe,” he wrote. 

But Monday afternoon, the official Turning Point USA Facebook account was posting older videos of Kirk arguing on behalf of toppling the Iranian regime.

 “If you are serious about actually protecting human rights, you should want to make Iran Western again,” Kirk says in the video. 

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