Iran’s top leader defends “Death to America” chants

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is defending “Death to America” chants that are standard fare at anti-U.S. rallies across Iran but says the chanting is aimed at America’s leaders and not its people.

Iranians will chant “Death to America” as long as Washington continues its hostile policies, Khamenei said on Friday.

“As long as America continues its wickedness, the Iranian nation will not abandon ‘Death to America’,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of Iranian Air Force officers marking the 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, according to his official website.

Khamenei was referring to Trump’s State of the Union address this week in which the American president, among other things, said: “We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants death to America.”

Trump pulled out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers last year and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran, dealing a blow to the country’s economy.

“‘Death to America’ means death to Trump, (National Security Adviser) John Bolton, and (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo. It means death to American rulers,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

“Death to America means ‘death’ to you, the few people ruling the country; we don’t mean the American nation,” he added.

European signatories of the nuclear deal have been trying to save the accord, but Khamenei said they could not be trusted.

“I recommend that one should not trust the Europeans just as the Americans,” Khamenei said. “We don’t say, don’t have contacts with them, but it’s an issue of trust.”

The European Union has stepped up criticism of Iran’s ballistic missiles programme while remaining committed to the 2015 nuclear deal.

“In the streets of Paris, they attack protesters and blind them, and then shamelessly make human rights demands on us,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

“Do you even know what human rights are? They never knew what human rights are either today or in the past, and even throughout their history,” the Leader added.