Discussing the slogan as Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani attempts to improve the country’s relations with America, Khamenei says that “Death to America” doesn’t actually mean death to American people.
Advertisement
“There has been no change in the USA objectives about the Islamic Republic of Iran, and if the Americans were able to destroy the Islamic Republic, they would not hesitate for a moment”, Khamenei said in a speech on the eve of the rallies.
It’s true that a few prominent Americans – including President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry – have attached little importance the “Death to America” chants, suggesting that the vast majority of Iranians don’t wish to kill Americans, even if they don’t back USA foreign policy (polls support this hypothesis).
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the slogan – a frequent feature of anti-American rallies in Iran – was aimed at the US government and not its people.
Protesters held placards with slogans including “Down with U.S.A” and “Down with Israel”.
Khamenei was speaking ahead of the anniversary on Wednesday of the start of the 1979 hostage crisis, which began when angry students stormed the USA embassy in Tehran and took 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.
And Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has made it clear that the refrain will not leave the Islamic republic’s political lexicon any time soon.
The July agreement involves the lifting of sanctions in return for Iran curbing sensitive nuclear activities. Except in this image, the hands of the Marines are soaked in blood and instead of rocks, the troops stand on a pile of dead bodies.
“Police closed the “KFC” restaurant as it didn’t have authorisation and had been operating under a false license”, reported the news site of Iran’s Young Journalists Club, which is affiliated with state television.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has said no centrifuges have been removed, so far, but the atomic organization is making preparations for carrying out the task.
During the demonstrations, state prosecutor Ebrahim Raeisi announced that the intelligence department of the Revolutionary Guard had detained a number of writers and spies “hired by Americans”. “But you can not trust the Americans, ever, and we mustn’t allow them to try to influence us”.
Advertisement
Still, this level of engagement would have been hard to imagine just a year ago, and it’s not surprising that it’s making the “death to America” crowd very uneasy.
