Iran is "not at all prepared" to abandon the controversial "Death to America" slogan often heard being chanted around the country despite recently entering a nuclear deal with the U.S. and five other world powers, a majority of Iranian legislators said Monday.
"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," said a statement backed by 192 members of Iran's 290-seat parliament, according to AFP.
The "Death to America" slogan is chanted each Friday during prayers in mosques, and at protests, and has "turned into the symbol of the Islamic republic and all struggling nations," the legislators said.
On July 14, Iran and six world powers - the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany - finalized a nuclear deal that will see Iran temporarily halt aspects of its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international economic sanctions, which have devastated its economy. Iran said Monday that it has started decommissioning uranium enrichment centrifuges as required by the deal, according to Reuters.
The legislators continued: "The government and the Majlis (parliament) should act carefully in line with the honorable leader's wide guidance," referring to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has a final say on all state matters and has endorsed the nuclear deal.
After endorsing the deal, he banned future negotiations with the U.S., warning that negotiations would pave the way for the U.S. to infiltrate "into the country's economic, cultural, political and security domains," as HNGN previously reported.
On Sunday, Khamenei said "America is the main part of the problem in the region, not part of the solution," also citing support for "the Zionist regime," reported the Times of Israel.
U.S. regional "policies differ 180 degrees with the policies of the Islamic republic," he added.
Iran's moderate President Hassan Rouhani has previously explained the meaning behind the "Death to America" chants, saying it does not mean death to the American people, but rather, death to U.S. foreign policy.
"This slogan that is chanted is not a slogan against the American people. Our people respect the American people," he insisted, according to Time.
"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.
U.S. conservative lawmakers, however, have doubts about those claims.
"When someone chants, 'Yes, certainly, death to America,' we should take him at his word, and we shouldn't put him on the path to a nuclear bomb," said Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a leading opponent of the Iranian nuclear agreement, reports USA Today.
