‘Death to America!’: Iranian lawmakers burn American flag after Trump exits nuclear deal

Iranian lawmakers burned an American flag in parliament on Wednesday to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

The video shows politicians in Tehran lighting a paper American flag on fire and yelling, “death to America!” while standing in the centre of the parliament chamber.

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They also burned a piece of paper representing the nuclear deal and stomped on the ashes.

“Be careful not to burn down the parliament,” speaker Ali Larijani said from the podium.

While U.S. flag-burning is common in Iran and harsh criticism of America has been a staple of Iranian parliamentary politics for years, it was the first time political observers could remember anything being burned inside the parliament itself.

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Iranian officials have condemned Trump’s decision to pull out of the 2015 deal, which had lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs to Iran’s nuclear program.

After Trump made the announcement on Tuesday to withdraw from the deal, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the president’s remarks threatened both Iran’s people and its theocratic government.

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“The body of this man, Trump, will turn to ashes and become the food of the worms and ants, while the Islamic Republic continues to stand,” Khamenei said.

After the flag burning, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said responsibility for saving the deal fell on the European Union and other world powers still in the accord.

“The period is only a window in which the EU can prove if it has enough weight for settling international issues,” he said.

— With files from AFP and the Associated Press