First Iranian American in Colorado General Assembly shares concerns about war with Iran, relatives' safety
Colorado state Rep. Yara Zokaie, the first Iranian American in the Colorado General Assembly, has yearned for regime change in Iran for much of her life. Her parents fled from Iran during the Islamic uprising in 1979, but many in her family remained. She says they've lived in fear of the Middle Eastern country's tyrannical ruler for decades.
The U.S. and Israel dealt a blow to that rule when a military operation resulted in the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but there is now new fear.
As the war with Iran continues and there's been mixed messages regarding an exit strategy for the U.S. by the Trump administration, the safety of residents of Iran is uncertain.
"They cannot breathe the air outside," Zokaie said, referring to her relatives. "They do not have access to the medication that they need. I have a pregnant cousin who had to flee as the hospital she was going to deliver in has been bombed."
Zokai says the human cost of the war is lost in Americans' worries around things like gas prices. The average price of gasoline in the U.S. on Friday was getting close to $4 a gallon, and the cost of crude oil has surged by 48% since the start of the war.
"The fact that we bombed a school and there are over 150 dead little girls, and we gloss over that, and it's become a footnote in this story, when that is somebody's entire world," she said.
When asked on March 9 about that bombing, the White House said that an investigation into what happened is ongoing and "there are no conclusions at this time."
The war, she says, has destabilized the entire region without changing the regime, and the length of the U.S. involvement is still a question mark.
Trump hasn't specified a timeline for an exit, although he has said he expects it will end "soon." Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late ayatollah, was chosen as Iran's new supreme leader but he was "injured very severely" in a bombing attack, said U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday at a House hearing on global threats to the U.S. Gabbard told lawmakers that Trump's objectives with the war "are to destroy Iran's ballistic missile launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability, and their navy, the IRGC navy, and mine-laying capability."
"If we were to leave, they are to suffer under the same regime that will probably be more brutal than it was before. If we are to stay, I think that we disrupt all of Iran, we destroy major cities, we kill a lot of innocent people," Zokaie said.
"American imperialism has never left countries better than we found it. We have never left countries with more human rights. We have not successfully enacted regime change. All I know is that we don't bomb our way to peace."
Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who represents Colorado's 8th Congressional District, has called the war "necessary."
"Operation Epic Fury is a necessary step to eliminate Iran's nuclear weapon capabilities, eliminate imminent threats to the United States and our allies, and defend our core national security interests. The United States has strong support from ally nations in the Middle East and will help liberate the Iranian people," he said in a Feb. 28 statement.
Ultimately, Zokaie said she believes change in Iran must come from within, and she's not giving up hope.
"I hope to have a day where I can take my kids back to a free Iran," she said.
