Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani, however, tried in a United States television interview in September to reassure the American public that when crowds in Tehran chant “Death to America!” they don’t mean it personally.
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NHK’s website also quoted Salehi as saying it was important that there be “balance” in implementing the deal, signaling Tehran’s stance that all sanctions against Iran should be lifted promptly in step with its dismantling of nuclear infrastructure. Iran and the U.S. cut diplomatic ties in 1979, after militant Iranian students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. “Death to Israel” was perhaps the most well-known variation, but “Death to the Soviet Union” and “Death to England” also became popular in the Islamic republic.
Whatever the intent, “death to America” has certainly come to define Iran’s position in American political discourse.
The source added that Namazi, who lives in Dubai, has been barred from leaving Iran since July. University students, school children and government workers, a few bused in from outside the capital, held placards emblazoned with “Down with U.S.A.” and chanted “Death to America”. “People will not forget these things”. Iran said Monday that it has started decommissioning uranium enrichment centrifuges as required by the deal, according to Reuters. Khamenei explained that the “death to America” motto really “means death to USA policies and arrogance”.
Under the terms of the deal, two-thirds of Iran’s centrifuges were to be removed. When the people rose up against the shah, the United States aggressively supported the shah until the last moments. According to Agence France-Presse, “Death to America” was still chanted and USA flags were burned.
“In recent years, a few have attempted, either deliberately … or naively”, Khamenei said, “to overlook the [Iranian] nation’s repeated experience [of USA hostility], to portray a whitewashed image of the U.S. and to pretend that if the Americans used to be an enemy of Iran one day, they have now stopped plotting [against Iran]”.
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Prosecutor General Ebrahim Raisi gave a fiery speech attacking United States “atrocities” ranging from slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, phone tapping and “the killing of 300,000 Iraqis”.
