Iranian lawmakers chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in parliament on Tuesday as they marked the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, state media reported.
Deputy speaker Ali Nikzad, who presided over the session, said Iran would not yield to foreign pressure. “The hostility and plots of the criminal America against the Iranian nation did not begin on November 4 and will not be solved through negotiations with the United States,” he said. “This conflict is rooted in principles, and the main issue is the effort to make the Iranian nation surrender.”
Nikzad said the takeover of the US Embassy was not a rash or emotional act but a reaction to years of US interference. He said the United States did not tolerate an independent power in West Asia and that disputes such as the nuclear issue were “only excuses.”
After his remarks, lawmakers shouted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, according to state television.
Khamenei defends anti-US slogan
The chants came a day after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei defended the slogan and reaffirmed Iran’s anti-US stance in a speech to students in Tehran. Khamenei said that Iran’s dispute with Washington was “essential, not tactical,” rejecting the notion that the chant itself created enmity between the two countries.
“The slogan ‘Death to America’ is not what causes hostility — the enmity is rooted in the nature of America’s imperialist system,” he said.
Khamenei added that the United States would have to end its military presence in the Middle East and withdraw support for Israel before any future cooperation with Iran could even be considered.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an interview last month, cited such chants as proof that Iran remains a global threat. He said Tehran is developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that could reach American cities and warned that “you don’t want to be under the nuclear gun of these people who chant ‘death to America.’”
The anniversary marks the start of the Iran Hostage Crisis, when followers of Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and held 52 American diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days, an episode that triggered more than four decades of confrontation between Tehran and Washington.
