Iranians are erasing 'Death to America' graffiti across Tehran

Reopening the U.S. embassy in Tehran is still a long, long way away from happening, but that doesn't mean Iranians aren't rethinking their relationship with Uncle Sam. Iranian state media said this weekend that a number of people painted over "Death to America" graffiti on the wall of the former U.S. embassy, the Jerusalem Post reported. Similar anti-American slogans have been wiped from other streets in Tehran.

Formal diplomatic ties have been severed between the United States and Iran since 1979, when student protesters overran the embassy; the hostage crisis that followed lasted 444 days. Britain, meanwhile, is restoring diplomatic relations with Iran, four years after its own embassy was ransacked. Iranians weren't as willing to clean the graffiti there, however; "Death to England" is still scrawled on a wall above a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, according to The Washington Post.

As we await a vote in Congress on the Iran nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif remains convinced that opening the U.S. embassy isn't a healthy next step, calling Washington's "illogical attitude" toward Iran a situation that needs to be resolved first.

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