The Iranian parliament on Sunday rang out with chants of “Death to America” after the vice speaker delivered an impassioned speech defending the country’s continued use of the expression ahead of the 34th anniversary of the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran.
Vice Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Hossein Aboutorabifard commended the November 4, 1979, attack on the US embassy as a symbol of “resistance of righteousness against falsehood,” Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported. At the conclusion of Aboutorabifard’s speech to the parliament, MPs joined in a collective chant of “Death to America.”
Not satisfied with one legislative chorus of “Death to America” chants, approximately 200 MPs — over two-thirds of the assembly – said they would voice their strong opposition to Washington by participating in a collective “Death to the US” shouting match on Monday, the anniversary of the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran.
The Iranian Defense Ministry also vowed that there would be massive rallies nationwide to mark the November 4 attack, emphasizing the Iranian people’s commitment to the motto “Death to America.”
“The Iranian nation will show on November 4 that it has never forgotten the ‘Death to the US’ slogan as the symbol of its resistance and uncompromising” nature, the Defense Ministry said in a statement quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency.
A member of the Assembly of Experts, the religious council responsible for electing and removing Iran’s supreme leader, also voiced his staunch opposition to the United States Saturday, saying that “the Iranian people are determined to continue their struggle with the global arrogance [the United States] until the US administration is forced to change its behavior,” the semi-official Islamic Republic news agency reported.
Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Asghar Dastghaib said that so long as the US “continues its antagonistic policies toward the Iranian nation, the Iranian people will follow up the recommendation of their supreme leader while chanting ‘Death to America.’”
Also see the latest update by Hal Lindsey. As a tribute to Jack Kinsella, Mr. Lindsey gives an overview of where we are in terms of the prophetic age with an emphasis on the year 1948 and Israel's regathering.
And this analysis from the Jerusalem Post:
Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official and the author of the forthcoming book Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes, disagrees completely with Parsi.
“The chances that Iran will come in from the cold are between zero and nil. Obama is going to get rolled like a nun at a Las Vegas poker table,” he told the Post.
“First of all, let’s not scapegoat Israel for a demand of zero enrichment. That is what four unanimous or near-unanimous Security Council resolutions demand of Iran,” argued Rubin. And these resolutions were the end result of years of Iranian violations of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) agreements, he said.
“As for the future of talks, there’s a lot of wishful thinking going on as diplomats and politicians substitute advocacy for analysis,” said Rubin, pointing out that while Khamenei speaks about “heroic flexibility,” it is clear that the regime is signaling “a change in tactics, not policy.”
In addition, Rubin said, “Kayhan, an Iranian newspaper whose editor Khamenei appoints and which speaks on the supreme leader’s behalf, has made clear that confidence building and compromise are tantamount to treason.”
Iranian officials continue to look at and speak about the North Korean model for achieving nuclear weapons.
In other words, “get ready for two steps forward, three steps back,” said Rubin.
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