The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Iran holiday rallies less anti-American
Expert: Iran aims to avoid confrontation with United States.
Iran marked TEHRAN, IRAN — its national holiday Friday with countrywide rallies with far less of the usual vitriol for the United States, in what seemed a move calculated to avoid further inciting President Donald Trump.
Many observers had expected Iranian leaders to take aim at Trump during rallies celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But the stacks of posters handed out by state organizations largely avoided mentions of Trump, and anti-American slogans, usually printed in English in the past for the international news media to see, were mostly in Persian.
Most notably, there were no missiles on display, as had been customary in previous years, to show off Iran’s military capabilities.
Tensions between the United States and Iran have surged in recent weeks after Trump blocked citizens of Iran and six other predominantly Muslim nations from visiting the United States, and he called Iran “#1 in terror.” His national security adviser, Michael Flynn, put the country “on notice” after it conducted a missile test late last month.
There were examples of anti-American sentiment on view, however: A large plastic copy of the U.S. flag was rolled out at the main rally, as was an Israeli flag, so people marching would walk over them. One man handed out posters showing Trump being beaten in the face by an arm with an Iranian flag around it. “Down with USA,” the accompanying text read.
On social media, an image of an Iranian carrying an effigy of Trump hanging from a rope made the rounds. Another showed U.S. and Israeli flags being burned.
But given the size of the rally in Tehran, the usual anti-Americanism was less noticeable than in previous years.
“Today’s rally shows that the government does not want any confrontation with the U.S.,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani.
Most of the hundreds of thousands at the rallies carried signs handed to them at the starting points of the rally. Several people carried signs with text in English calling on Americans to visit Iran.
“American people are welcome and invited to visit Iran,” one read. “Thanks to American people for supporting Muslims,” said another. “Down with American regime, long live U.S. people,” another exclaimed.