‘Death to America’ Means Death to US Rulers, Not Nation: Leader

Addressing a group of Iranian Air Force commanders and personnel in Tehran on Friday, the Leader said the “US regime is the embodiment of evil, violence, crisis-making and warmongering.”

“The US officials, while insulting the Iranian nation, wonder why you (Iranians) say ‘death to America’,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that death to America is not addressed to the American nation.

“Death to America means death to the country’s rulers, which is currently death to Trump, Bolton and Pompeo.”

Ayatollah Khamenei added that the Iranian nation will continue to chant death to America as long as Washington keeps treading the path of evilness, interference, wickedness and villainy.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had complained that Iran “chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people.”

Elsewhere in his address, the Leader pointed to Europeans’ offers on preservation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and urged Iranian officials not to trust Europe.

Last Thursday, the European Union introduced a financial mechanism for trade with Iran known as INSTEX.

Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement on the creation of the INSTEX that will allow trade between the EU and Iran without relying on direct financial transactions.

INSTEX has been registered in France and will be run by German banker and former Commerzbank manager Per Fischer. The new special purpose vehicle will have a supervisory board consisting of diplomats from all three countries: Miguel Berger of Germany, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne of France and Simon McDonald of Britain.

On Monday, however, the Council of the European Union issued a conclusion on the Islamic Republic, urging Iran to “adopt and implement the necessary legislation pursuant to its commitments under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Action Plan.”

The EU has also voiced readiness to “continue cooperation with Iran in these areas, including by providing technical assistance for the implementation of the FATF Action Plan.”

Iranian Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has stressed that the country would never accept the “humiliating conditions” of the European Union’s financial mechanism for trade with Iran, including Iran’s accession to FATF.

“The European countries have reportedly set two ‘strange conditions’ for the mechanism named the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX),” the top judge deplored, saying, “The countries should be aware that Iran will by no means accept these humiliating conditions and will not accede to any demand at the expense of opening a small waterway such as INSTEX.”

The European countries are reportedly going to use the channel initially only to sell food, medicine and medical devices in Iran.

In May 2018, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, the nuclear deal that was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Following the US exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.