Reaction to US Policies

President Hassan Rouhani says when crowds in Iran chant “Death to America” they do not mean it personally. The president told CBS the slogan is a reaction to previous Washington policy decisions that hurt Iran, according to an abstract of the interview released on Saturday. “This slogan that is chanted is not a slogan against the American people. Our people respect the American people.” The Iranian people are not looking for war with any country,” he stressed.  “But at the same time the policies of the United States have been against the national interests of Iranian people, it’s understandable that people will demonstrate sensitivity to this issue. “When the people rose up against the shah [former dictator Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who was deposed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution], the United States aggressively supported the shah until the last moments. In the eight-year war with Iraq, the Americans supported Saddam. “People will not forget these things. We cannot forget the past, but at the same time our gaze must be towards the future.”