(CNS News) – Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, addressed a gathering of Iranian teachers on May 6, who responded to his address by chanting: “God is great! Khamene’i is the leader! Death to the enemies of the leadership! Death to America! Death to England! Death to the hypocrites! Death to Israel!”
According to an English-language transcript of the speech published by the BBC, the Iranian teachers interrupted the ayatollah’s speech at three points with chants expressing their desire to see the death of America, England and Israel.
“We say that teachers carry out the task of the prophets, this is the depth and heart of this saying. That is what a teacher is,” the ayatollah said at one point, according to the transcript published by the BBC.
“Well, that has some prerequisites. One of the prerequisites is the issue of economy which, as I said, the economy of the [Ministry] of Education, the livelihood of the teachers is one of the necessities,” said the ayatollah. “We know the restrictions of government apparatuses; we are not strangers to the restrictions and problems that exist. But the effort of governmental officials must be to pay special attention to that sector.”
At this point, according to the BBC, the audience chanted: “God is great, Khamene’i is the leader, death to the enemies of the leadership; death to America; death to England; death to the hypocrites; death to Israel.”
Later, the ayatollah said the “powers of the world” had tried to bring Iran to “its knees.
“Political officials from various countries have said to us, some have said it to us directly and some could not bring themselves to say it to us and they have stated in their own gatherings and we have heard about it, that if these sanctions that they have imposed against Iran and the pressure that they have exerted against the Islamic Republic had been carried out against any other country, it would have been destroyed,” he said. “But they have not been able to even move the Islamic Republic.”
At this point, according to the transcript published by the BBC, the audience of teachers again chanted: “God is great, Khamene’i is the leader, death to the enemies of the leadership; death to America; death to England; death to the hypocrites; death to Israel.”
The ayatollah then brought up the “nuclear negotiations” his government has been having with the U.S. and other nations.
“Well, the enemy threatens,” he said. “Over these last few days, two US officials have made military threats. We are not talking about officials who do not have very vital responsibilities, but two officials have made threats. I do not understand; what do negotiations under the specter of threats mean? Negotiations under the specter of threats as though there is a sword over the head of the Iranian nation. That will not be the case. The Iranian nation will not stand for negotiations under the specter of threats. Why do they threaten so much? Why do they overstep their boundaries? They say: ‘If you do not do such and such thing and such and such thing, it is possible that we will attack Iran military.’ Firstly, you are making a mistake.”
Here, according to the transcript published by the BBC, the crowd of teachers interrupted the ayatollah, chanting: “God is great, God is great. Khamene’i is the leader. Death to those opposed to the supreme leader. Death to America. Death to England. Death to the hypocrites. Death to Israel. Leader of the free, we are ready.”“
The English-language translation of this speech currently posted on the Ayatollah Khamenei’s website reports only this last instance in which the Iranian teachers broke into a “death-to” chant while the ayatollah was addressing them. In this translation, it omits the teachers calling for death to England, death to hyprocrites and death to Israel, and only reports that they chanted “Death to America.”
“The people of Iran are not like this,” says ayatollah, in the translation currently posted on his website. “The people of Iran do not tolerate negotiating under the shadow of threats. Why do they issue threats? Why do they say nonsense? They say that under such and such circumstances, they may attack Iran. First, the hell you will do such a thing [audience chants ‘Death to America!’]. You do not dare do so and second, I said during the time of the former President of America–at that time too, he used to issue threats–that the time of ‘hit and run’ is over. It is not the case that you can say, ‘We will hit them and then we will run.’ This is not the case. Your feet will get stuck and we will chase you. The people of Iran will never let go of those who transgress against them. We will chase anyone who wants to do that.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/ayatollah-speaks-teachers-who-chant-death-america-death-englanddeath
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