In his tour of history, Khamenei included an American-backed coup in Iran in 1953 and the spying he said was done from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, which Iranian students and radicals took over in 1979.
Advertisement
While moderate President Rouhani is keen to normalise relations with the West after the deal, supporters of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used this year’s rallies across the country to argue the historic agreement would not lead to any rapprochement between Tehran and Washington. “The U.S.is one of Iran’s major enemies and this will have grave dangers for the country”. “This slogan means death to arrogance and death to the policies of America”.
Namazi is at least the fourth American of Iranian descent to be incarcerated by the Iranian authorities and the first since the nuclear agreement was completed. “I think they’ve said ‘Death to America” in their chants’.
We Yankee cannibals, vampires and genocidal maniacs could easily retaliate in kind, with bellicose slogans like “Death to Iran!”, “Annihilate the Ayatollah!” and “Piss on the Persians!”
Crowds also rallied against USA allies including Israel, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. On the same day, Iranian state television announced that a Lebanese-American had been arrested on suspicion of having links to the U.S. intelligence community, although an official in Washington indicated the man was not a USA national.
The historic deal struck in July by Iran and the P5+1 powers-the USA, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russian Federation, plus Germany-involves the lifting of sanctions against Iran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program.
“Unfortunately in the last two days a few contractors entered Fordo and started dismantling centrifuges… they said they could finish the job in two weeks”, the lawmakers said, according to the news agency, citing Iranian media.
“We’re looking into these reports and don’t have anything further to provide at this time”, the source said.
The group said the slogan had become “a symbol of the Islamic republic and all struggling nations”.
On 4 November 1979 revolutionary students stormed the United States embassy in Tehran taking dozens of USA staff hostage.
Advertisement
Even facsimiles of American culture are targeted, as demonstrators Wednesday carried signs that said no to USA fast-food chains like McDonald’s or Starbucks setting up franchises in the country.
