Are Obama and Kerry aware that the “Death to America” chant is not an occasional outburst of some Iranian zealot, but a regular feature of Friday prayers in mosques all over Iran? Have they pondered the implications of that fact? Almost certainly not.
“‘Death to America’ stands despite nuclear deal: Iran MPs,” AFP, November 2, 2015 (thanks to Lookmann):
A clear majority of Iranian legislators said Monday the Islamic republic will not abandon the slogan of “Death to America” despite its July nuclear accord with world powers.
“The martyr-nurturing nation of Iran is not at all prepared to abandon the slogan of ‘Death to America’ under the pretext of a nuclear agreement,” 192 members of Iran’s 290-seat parliament said in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA.
They said the slogan, chanted at the weekly Friday prayers in mosques and at protests, had “turned into the symbol of the Islamic republic and all struggling nations”….
In the aftermath of the July 14 nuclear deal with world powers, “the government and the Majlis (parliament) should act carefully in line with the honourable leader’s wise guidance”, the legislators said, referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei….
Iran’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani, however, tried in a US television interview in September to reassure the American public that when crowds in Tehran chant “Death to America!” they don’t mean it personally.
“This slogan that is chanted is not a slogan against the American people. Our people respect the American people,” he insisted.
“But … the policies of the United States have been against the national interests of Iranian people (so) it’s understandable that people will demonstrate sensitivity to this issue,” he said.
Oh, well, it’s all right, then!