The ominous-looking aircraft on display Thursday inside a congressional caucus room on Capitol Hill wasn’t there just to spark conversations by tourists or others passing by.
The Shahed-136, an Iranian-designed and manufactured kamikaze drone, was a tangible symbol of Tehran’s threat against the West, said officials from the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran.
“This is the face of the Iranian regime,” said former U.N. Ambassador Mark Wallace, the group’s CEO.
Iran provided Russia with 6,000 Shahed-136 drones in the Russians’ war against Ukraine. Others were used in the Jan. 28, 2024, attack on a logistics base in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded several others.
Sen. Ted Cruz was one of a handful of lawmakers who spoke at Thursday’s event. The Texas Republican said the Iranian government represents “an acute and imminent threat to America and our allies.”
“When the ayatollah chants ‘death to America,’ he means it,” Mr. Cruz said.
