Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was seen chanting “Death to America” in a video that surfaced last week, Ynet reported Saturday.

https://twitter.com/thevocaleurope/status/1000454236549926912

The video captured Zarif, who was the lead Iranian negotiator for the 2015 nuclear deal, smiling and chanting along with the crowd, “Death to America”, “Death to Britain” and “Death to Israel.”

The crowd had assembled to hear a speech given by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, and started the chants after the speech.

Zarif is widely characterized as a “moderate.”

It has been conventional wisdom that those Iranians described as moderates did not engage in such rhetoric. FRANCE 24 Tehran correspondent Reza Sayah, referring to Zarif, said earlier this month that “the moderates, of course, were not chanting ‘death to America’.”

Wendy Sherman, the lead United States negotiator for the nuclear deal, did not characterize any member of the government in that fashion. Rather, she observed “There are hardliners in Iran, and then there are hard-hardliners in Iran.” She added that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, an ally of Zarif, “is not a moderate, he is a hardliner.”
[Photo: Tom Gross / YouTube ]