'Death to America' to remain on walls of US Embassy in Tehran

Tehran: The graffiti "Death to America" will remain on the walls of former US embassy here, Iran's Basij Student Organisation announced on Tuesday, reported semi-official Fars news agency.

"Basij Student Organisation announces this to the Iranian people that the slogan of Death to America will ever decorate the walls of this place (former US embassy)," an announcement by the public relations of the organisation said.

The announcement came following the recent news that the graffiti "Death to America 2015" and "Death To America 1394 (Iranian calendar)" were painted over the walls of former embassy.

Although five painted patches on the eastern blank wall of the former US embassy in Tehran confirms the erasure of graffiti posted by some radical anti-US elements, the eye-catching and bold slogans against the US still remain on the southern wall on Taleghani street.

"Death to the US" at the entrance of the main gate of the former US embassy, which has turned now into a museum and a cultural complex, is dramatically noticeable by every passerby.

"Not only the Iranian people but all the Muslims and the world people are entitled to shout 'Death to America' due to the oppressive policies of the United States," the announcement by Iran's Basij Student Organisation also read, according to Tasnim news agency on Tuesday.

This is an "illusion" that the recent nuclear deal will lead to the removal of the slogan and the return of the US to the country, said Basij Student Organization, which is currently in charge of the cultural affairs in the complex. It criticized the scrubbing of the slogans from the former embassy eastern wall.

The US broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980, after a group of Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran and captured some 60 US diplomats in 1979, 52 of whom being in captivity for 444 days in the hostage crisis.

On August 17, the country's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said the recent nuclear deal with world powers would not pave the way for US influence in Iran.

Iran and the P5+1 group -- the US, Britain, France, Russia, China plus Germany -- reached a comprehensive deal on Tehran's nuclear programme on July 14, resolving the decade-long issue.

After the landmark deal, international sanctions on Tehran are expected to be lifted and foreign investments pour in after years of isolation.