The supreme leader of Iran’s comments clarifying the slogan came while talking to students this week before the anniversary of the takeover of Tehran, the Associated Press reported. “I’m fairly certain that there are ways to re-engage [Iran]”, he said.
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Republican Ed Royce represents California’s 39th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Militant university students stormed the USA embassy in Tehran during the incident, taking 52 Americans captive for 444 days.
In a crucial move to end internal debate, Khamenei last month endorsed the nuclear accord that limits Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a reduction in global sanctions.
The slogan has “strong support” in Iran, he added.
Separately, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission. Rouhani has been widely described as a relative moderate by Western leaders and media outlets, but the letter is the latest in a series of incidences of his toeing the line set forth by Khamenei and the hardline Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
But 36 years after the Islamic revolution, “Death to America!” has lost much of its potency inside the country, reduced to a rote phrase of state propaganda which few Iranians take seriously.
“These five Americans have faced torture and been denied medical treatment, basic legal representation, and due process”, Royce said.
Firouzabadi, who is the highest-ranking member of the Iranian military after the commander-in-chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced November 4 that Iran will also consider “a 2000-km missile range limit that all authorities have agreed on”.
Anti-Americanism plays into that.
The U.S. State Department said Zaka is not an American citizen.
Others carried banners rejecting US fast food chains McDonald’s and Starbucks.
A KFC-branded fried chicken restaurant that opened its doors Sunday night in Iran’s capital city of Tehran was shut down after just one day in operation. Abbas Pazooki, the restaurant’s manager, said he hoped to reopen soon and claimed his eatery, “KFC Halal”, had nothing to do with the USA brand. Many foreign firms, especially German companies, are eager to reestablish business ties with Iran, but the business world must contend with human rights sanctions that will continue to be a barrier to economic progress. He did not elaborate.
Americans are unlikely to accept Khameini’s explanation considering Iran’s recent behavior.
He reiterated his warning that the United States is not to be trusted despite the nuclear deal reached with the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.
“The USA embassy takeover formed the pillars of the country’s independence and fighting against the arrogant power by the Islamic Revolution in Iran”, it quoted him as saying.
Domestically, the security establishment likely has an eye on upcoming elections to parliament and the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body with nominal power over the Supreme Leader, in February next year.
“The truth is that the US’s objectives regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran have not changed at all”, he said, according to Iranian agencies. “In the same way, the Americans sit in the Congress and in the Senate thinking, ‘This is an attack against us, ‘ while it’s not”.
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He discussed “Death to America” and said slogan’s aim “is not death to American people”.
