Iran’s Supreme Leader Downgrades U.S. From ‘Great Satan’ to ‘Great False Idol’

JAFFA, Israel – Last year’s historic deal between Tehran and the world powers has apparently left a mark on Iran’s political jargon, as evidenced by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s choice this week to refer to the United States as “the Great False Idol” instead of the traditional “Great Satan.”

Washington’s allies in the West are now known as “the secondary false idols,” Khamenei said in a meeting with the members of the election committee as Iran gears up to general elections next month. He didn’t say whether Israel will keep its title “Little Satan.”

The “Great Satan” was coined by Ayatollah Khomeini shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which was then used in anti-US demonstrations alongside the chant “death to America.”

The London-based Al Hayat newspaper says that Iran was required to tone down its anti-American rhetoric given Washington’s leading role in lifting the international sanctions, all the while keeping it at the top of the list of enemies.

The “Great False Idol” is therefore meant to warn the Iranian people against cooperating with the United States, because idolatry is a grave transgression in Islam.