Video of Iran's parliament chanting 'death to America' is from 2020, not 2023 | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Iran’s parliament recently chanted 'Death to Israel' and 'Death to America'

An Oct. 9 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows members of the Iranian Parliament chanting with fists raised.

“IranIan (sic) lawmakers chanting ‘Death to Israel! Death to America!’” reads the text in the video.

The caption asserts this is a recent occurrence: “Biden recently sent 6 billion of (sic) there but it’s death to America."

It received more than 200 likes in one day.

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Our rating: False

The video is from 2020, not a response to the current Israel-Hamas conflict. It shows Iranian lawmakers protesting the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani. There are no credible reports that any of those chants mentioned Israel.

Video shows protest of Iran general’s death, not Israel-Hamas conflict

The Instagram post shows CNN video of Iranian lawmakers chanting and walking down the aisles with their fists in the air as they converge on the parliament floor. The video is labeled as breaking news.

But it's not new. It dates to January 2020 and shows the lawmakers protesting the death of Soleimani – not the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict that has left about 1,600 people dead as of Oct. 10.

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Soleimani was killed Jan. 3, 2020, in a drone strike ordered by former President Donald Trump. In response, Iranian lawmakers approved a bill designating the U.S. military and the Pentagon as a terrorist organization, USA TODAY reported at the time.

The headlines in the scrolling news ticker also refer to other news items from January 2020, including one that summarizes posts made by Trump and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the platform formerly known as Twitter.

Two other elements of the Instagram post are also false.

While the post claims the lawmakers called for Israel's doom, there are no credible translations of the chants heard in the video that indicate they refer to any nation but the U.S.

And the claim in the caption asserting that President Joe Biden sent Iran $6 billion is also not true.

Instead, Biden allowed for the transfer of roughly $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil revenues from South Korea to a restricted account in Qatar last month in exchange for the release of five American citizens held in Iran who were accused of being spies or working on behalf of the U.S. government, USA TODAY reported last month.

None of that money has been spent, and it has nothing to do with the conflict in Israel, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a post on X.

None of the money came from the U.S. It is intended to be used only for humanitarian purchases such as food, medicine, medical devices and agricultural products, and the Biden administration says it will “take action to lock up the funds” if they are used for any other purpose, USA TODAY reported.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Video of 'death to America' chant in Iran is from 2020 | Fact check