Colorado Democratic Socialist candidate Melat Kiros recently stated that the 9/11 terror attacks were "inevitable" as a result of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Kiros made these remarks during an interview with 9News when asked about similar comments she had previously made regarding the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel.

During the interview on June 22, Kiros elaborated on her earlier statements made on the Twitch stream of Hasan Piker. She had described the October 7th attack as "an inevitable consequence of apartheid, of occupation, decades of occupation." While clarifying that she did not believe Israel "had it coming," Kiros emphasized the importance of understanding the "conditions" that contribute to such violence.

"It’s about understanding the conditions in which violence and war happen, right?" Kiros said. "Israel is a country that has been accused of apartheid and occupation for decades now and has been able to resist any kind of change despite all of the frustration on the world stage that people have had for the conditions that Palestinians have been living in."

When pressed by 9News journalist Kyle Clark about whether she viewed the 9/11 attacks as an "inevitable consequence" of U.S. foreign policy, Kiros responded, "Inevitable in the sense that we destabilized a lot of the Middle East, which led people to believe that another act of violence was the only response. And again, just like I said before, our responsibility is to get rid of those conditions that lead to violence in the first place."

Prior to her current campaign, Kiros was dismissed from her position at the law firm Sidley Austin in 2023. The termination followed the publication of an open letter in which she criticized law firms, including her own, for issuing statements that addressed antisemitism on college campuses.

In her letter, Kiros wrote, "By chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy, you are complicit in Israel’s weaponization of anti-Semitism against legitimate concerns for the right of self-determination and the livelihood of the Palestinian people. By conflating ‘calls for the elimination of the Israeli state’ with anti-Semitism, you delegitimize any solution that forces Israel to reckon with its colonial role in Palestine, including one-state solutions called for by Palestinians and Israelis alike — one state, under the historic Palestine, where all citizens are equal under the rule of law, regardless of religion or ethnicity."

Kiros is among a number of candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America who are seeking to unseat incumbent Democratic politicians in the upcoming elections.