The slogan “Death to America” is not aimed at the American people, but rather American policies, Iran’s supreme leader said in comments reported on his official website Tuesday.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei discussed the slogan while meeting with Iranian students ahead of the anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. Militant students stormed the compound and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
The two countries have had no diplomatic relations since then. However, current President Hassan Rouhani has made efforts to improve relations, including a landmark nuclear agreement reached with world powers this past summer.
Khamenei says the “aim of the slogan is not death to American people. The slogan means death to U.S. policies and arrogance.” The slogan has “strong support” In Iran, he said.
Khamenei and hard-liners in the Iranian government remain deeply suspicious of the United States and view its policies a threat to the country.
He reiterated his warning that the U.S. is not to be trusted despite the nuclear deal reached with the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. The agreement promises Tehran relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
He said the U.S. “will not hesitate” if given a chance to destroy Iran. “The nature of the U.S. attitude is continuation of the same hostile aims from the past, and the nation will not forget this,” Khamenei said.
(AP)
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4 Responses
Let’s keep in mind the background to Iranian hatred of America. From Wikipedia:
“In 1951, Mohammad Mosaddegh was elected as the prime minister. He became enormously popular in Iran, after he nationalized Iran’s petroleum industry and oil reserves. He was deposed in the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, an Anglo-American covert operation that marked the first time the US had overthrown a foreign government during the Cold War.
After the coup, the Shah became increasingly autocratic and sultanistic, and Iran entered a phase of decades long controversial close relations with the United States and some other foreign governments. While the Shah increasingly modernized Iran and claimed to retain it as a fully secular state, arbitrary arrests and torture by his secret police, the SAVAK, were used to crush all forms of political opposition.” [end of Wikipedia quote]
I remember from those days that at a time when a good part of the country was going to bed hungry, the Shah was sending his private jet to bring back freshly cooked gourmet meals for his family costing thousands of dollars per serving from luxury restaurants as far away as New York. I also remember a University of Texas Iranian expert saying in 78 that the death blow to the Shah’s regime was when his brutality finally alienated the middle and managerial classes who turned against him. Then during the occupation of the American embassy (which I don’t condone or defend) the occupiers went through the embassy’s files and found lots of glaring evidence of blatant American interference in internal Iranian affairs. So if the Iranians today hate the US and Israel (who maintained close supportive relations with the hated Shah) it’s because they haven’t forgotten that period in Iranian history in which they suffered so much repression and torture. Not that I support the ways they express that hatred, but I think it’s important to be aware of its sources.
Not only is this Ayatollah animal a killer, he is a lomdish as well
And he also has a bridge to sell.
Oh, by the way!
It’s in Brooklyn!