Iranian lawmakers ascended the podium in Tehran’s parliament and lit an American flag on fire, shouting “Death to America!” on Wednesday in response to an official announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump that America would be withdrawing from its nuclear deal with Iran.
The spontaneous demonstration included multiple yelling parliamentarians, who also burned a piece of paper representing the nuclear deal.
Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said, “With a national consensus, we will give the United States and Zionists a response that they will regret, according Iran’s Mehr news agency. Reuters reported that Larijani stated that “Trump does not have the mental capacity to deal with issues.”
Thousands of Iranians also took to the streets in protest of America’s decision, holding pre-printed placards opposing in America in Farsi, English and Arabic. While the posters read in English, “Down with U.S.A” and “Down with Israel,” the translations of the Farsi and Arabic read, “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
The 2015 Iran nuclear deal imposed limited restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions by the United States and many other countries, including the European Union.
A little more than a week before Trump’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a televised, English-language presentation displaying evidence stolen by the Mossad from secret Iranian Revolutionary Guard storehouses, showing that Iran had lied about the intentions and progress of its nuclear program and weaponization capabilities.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has called on Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to provide assurances that Iran would continue to receive the economic relief promised to it under the deal, or else it, too, may back out of it.
Trump has called on Britain, France, and Germany to develop a new agreement restricting Iran’s ballistic-missile program, providing increased to military sites for U.N. nuclear inspectors, and removing expiration dates on uranium and plutonium enrichment restrictions.
