The slogan “Death to America” is directed against the “evil” US President Donald Trump and his associates, not the American people, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said.

Speaking to a gathering of Iranian Air Force officers, Khamenei hit back at Trump’s State of the Union address, which included an attack on the Iranian “regime that chants ‘Death to America.’”

“The US is the embodiment of evil, but still complains when you chant ‘Death to America,’” Khamenei said. He then explained that those chants specifically target the people ruling the country, not “the American nation.”

Death to America means death to Trump, John Bolton, and Pompeo.

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Iranians will keep using the belligerent slogan, the Ayatollah added, as long as the US remains “evil and wicked.”

The current administration in Washington – spearheaded by the three officials named in Khamenei’s speech, Trump, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – have sharply antagonized Iran. They have taken every opportunity to accuse Tehran of being a state sponsor of terrorism that is hellbent on the destruction of Israel, the Trump administration’s closest Middle Eastern ally.

Trump pulled the US out of the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the other signatories have hailed as a breakthrough in preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He has been threatening sanctions against anyone who keeps trading with Iran in defiance of American warnings.

Speaking on Friday, the Ayatollah called the American “regime” an “embodiment of evil and violence,” whose existence depends on “encroachment aimed at securing its own interests.”

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