US Senate candidate El-Sayed evades audience request to denounce IRGC, break silence on Iran

"I haven't heard anything from you about the protesters, Abdul," an audience member said. "That silence had a gaping hole in our community and I want to ask if you regret that silence"

Michigan Democratic Party senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed evaded an audience member's direct request to unequivocally condemn the Iranian regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during a University of Michigan town hall event titled "Students vs. Billionaires" on Wednesday, at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.

The event was part of a statewide campus tour organized by More Perfect University to engage voters across Michigan.

During the speaking event an attendee wearing a Michigan Persians sweatshirt confronted El-Sayed regarding his past silence on the regime's violent suppression of dissidents and protesters. The attendee specifically pointed to leaked audio from earlier in the year where El-Sayed allegedly stated he did not want to comment on the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because "there are a lot of people in Dearborn who are sad today."

"My cousin was hunted in the streets of Iran by the IRGC because her hijab wasn't on right," the audience member stated at the event. "My uncle was sentenced to die, received 50 lashings by Ali Khamenei's government."

The questioner pressed El-Sayed to break his silence, asking if he regretted that silence and if he would denounce the IRGC. "I haven't heard anything from you about the protesters, Abdul," the audience member said. "That silence had a gaping hole in our community and I want to ask if you regret that silence, I want to ask if you renounce the people that held vigils, that supported this terrorist for all that he’s done. I wanted to ask if you stand unequivocally against the IRGC, against the Islamic Republic of Iran that has killed 50,000 protesters, Abdul, I haven't heard anything from you about the protesters, Abdul, please."

El-Sayed redirected the discussion to US military intervention in the Middle East

Responding to the inquiry during the town hall event, El-Sayed avoided condemning the IRGC directly and instead shifted the discussion toward foreign policy and military intervention, telling the crowd that "for too long and too often, when we think about our role in the world, we have turned ourselves into the world's policeman."

El-Sayed addressed the risks of foreign entanglements and regime change initiatives rather than addressing the audience member's demand to oppose the Iranian military branch. "One can disagree with the governance of a foreign country, one can stand in solidarity with freedom and democracy movements, but my worry is one when one decides that we are going to go in and take out the leadership of a foreign government," he said.

While stating that he stands with freedom and democracy movements, El-Sayed argued that foreign intervention often serves corporate interests regarding natural resources rather than supporting democratic outcomes. "I will always stand for and with democratic movements, always," El-Sayed said. "But I also don't believe that we were in the right to go to war to topple the government of Iran. It was not our responsibility to do it."

As El-Sayed continued explaining his position on foreign leadership and military action, the audience member interrupted from the floor to point out that the candidate still had not directly answered the question regarding the IRGC, shouting, "You still haven't said it though, we're dying, the IRGC, do you stand with us?"

In response, El-Sayed reiterated his stance against foreign regime change efforts, telling the crowd that "the US has no, we should not be in the business of regime change," while adding that "once you start putting our resources toward regime change in foreign countries, more often than not the regimes that we seek to change are the ones in which there is a natural resource interest and it becomes a ploy for the interest of our corporations and that's what I worry about."