Iranian President Says “Death To America” Chants Aren’t Really Meant To Be Personal Or Something

It wouldn’t be a Friday in Iran if there wasn’t a rally where they’re chanting Death To America and Death To Israel. Well, that and hanging gays, stoning rape victims, and torturing others. But, hey, we aren’t supposed to take it personally!

Iranian crowds chanting ‘death to America’ don’t mean it personally, says president Hassan Rouhani

In an interview with 60 Minutes due to be broadcast on Sunday, Mr Rouhani said the famous Friday ritual is a reaction to previous Washington policy decisions that hurt Iran.

In April, US president Barack Obama’s administration signed a deal with Mr Rouhani’s government to release Iran from many of the sanctions harming its economy in return for tight controls on its nuclear program.

But many in the US are still convinced that Iran, which is ultimately led not by Mr Rouhani but by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, remains bent on their country’s destruction.

In the fierce domestic American debate over the deal, opponents have often cited the regular appearance of chanting anti-American crowds as evidence of Tehran’s true intentions.

But Mr Rouhani, seen as a moderate reformer by the standards of the Islamic republic, attempted to reassure his CBS interviewer Steve Kroft and the wider audience.

“This slogan that is chanted is not a slogan against the American people. Our people respect the American people,” he insisted in an extract from the interview released by CBS.

Nothing says “respect” like chanting for those people’s deaths, am I right? By this same measure, it means all those #BlackLivesMatter folks really love the police, eh?

Many Iranians may respect the American people. More than enough, especially the hardliners who run the country, do not, and actually wish death on America and Israel. I wonder if Steve Kroft followed up regarding the chants of “death to Israel”. and how Iran has repeatedly stated that Israel would be wiped off the map?

But, this kind of yammering is surely meant to placate liberal supporters of the Iran deal, a deal which simply punts Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions down the road 8-15 years. These same liberal supporters, both American and foreign, are often the same people who despise America in the first place.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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