Mohammad Nahavandian , chief of staff for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that : If you go and ask anyone who uses that slogan ... what he is against , it is interference in Iran 's policies by overthrowing a nationally elected prime minister at the time of Mossadegh . For them , what they are against is the kind of government who shoots an airplane full of innocent passengers " ( referring to Iran Air flight 655 , an Iranian airliner shot down by an American naval vessel ) . " For them , it 's not the people of America , per se . For them , they are opposed to that sort of policy , that sort of attitude , that sort of arrogance . It 's not a nation . It 's a system of behavior . " " Regarding the words ' Death to America ' , we mean American politics , not the American people " , says Hussein al Hamran , head of Foreign Relations for Ansar Allah ( Houthis ) . Ali al-Bukhayti , a former spokesperson and official media face of the Houthis , has said : " We do not really want death to anyone . The slogan is simply against the interference of those governments i.e. US , and Israel "
Iran Air flight 655
Iran Air Flight 655
Death to America